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CATHOLIC HISTOEY 

OF - 

NORTH AMERICA, 

FIVE DISCOURSES. 

TO AVIIICH AllE ADDED 
TWO DISCOUKSES ON THE RELATIONS OF lEELAND AND AMEKICA. 



By THOMAS D'ARCY MCGEE, 

AUTHOJi OF "THE KEFOKMATIOX IX IRELAND," 'IRISH SKXTEESS IK 
AMERICA," ETC., ETC. 




DISCOVERERS OF THE CO 31 I' ASS. 



BOSTON: 
PATRICK DON A HOE, 

21, 23, & 2o Franklin Street. 
1 8 5 5. 





1 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by 
PATRICK DONAHOE, 
la tlie Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



STEREOTYPED AT THE 
BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. 



DEDICATION. 



AT THE FEET OF 

MAEY, IMMACULATE, 

THE ETER-BLESSED MOTHER OF GOD, 

UNDER "^HOSE AUSPICES AMEEICA WAS 

DISCOVERED AXD EXPLORED; 

"WHOSE I^'TERCESSIOX OUR PIOUS PREDECESSORS ALVTAYS IXYOKED 
TVHOil THE CHURCH HAS GITEN US 

I OFFER THIS LITTLE BOOK, 
IN DEEP HUMILITY. 

All Souls Day, 18-yi. 



(3) 

f 



INTRODUCTION. 



The following Discourses, delivered during the 
lecture season, 1853-54, first at New York, and 
subsequently, in part or whole, at Boston, Cincin- 
nati, Washington, and Baltimore, were thought, by 
several of those who heard them, worthy of publi- 
cation in a permanent form. When I state that 
among those who so judged there were many 
prelates, distinguished for acquirements and judg- 
ment, and others well versed in our American 
history, I trust the reader will believe that the 
publication has not been dictated by a merely per- 
sonal presumption on my part. 

The object of the author is stated in the three 

propositions with which the first discourse opens. 

The authorities on w^hich he relies are quoted in 
1 (5) 



6 



INTRODUCTION. 



the foot notes in tliose instances where there was 
danger of a dispute as to facts. In the Appendix, 
certain documents which could not be inserted in 
the body of the work, will be found unabridged. 
They are of high interest in themselves, and essen- 
tial to this argument. 

With the humble request that the work may be 
taken as a sketch, or synopsis, or stop-gap, and no 
more, I commit it to the just judgment of the 
American public. 



CONTENTS. 



HISTORY OF AMERICA. 

PAGE 

I. Columbus and the Discovery, . • . • • • • 9 

II. The Successors of Columbus, 26 

III. The Aborigines and Missionaries, 39 

IV. The Catholics and the Revolution, • .... 68 
V. The Church in the Republic, 90 

THE RELATIONS OF IRELAND AND AMERICA. 

I. Historical Relations, 112 

II. Actual Relations, 136 

APPENDIX. 

I. The Will of Christopher Columbus, 157 

II. Letter and Bull of Pope Alexander VI. in Relation to the 

Discovery of America, 171 

(7) 



8 



CONTENTS. 



III. Apostolic Letter of Pope Paul III., A. D. 1537, declaring 

the American Indians to be rational Creatures, , . 179 

IV. Spanish. Form of taking Possession, 182 

V. The Jesuits in Canada, 186 

YI. Address of the Roman Catholics of America to George 

Washington, and his Reply, ...... 194 

YII. An Account of the blessed Catharine Tegahkouita, illus- 
trating the Influence of Christianity on the domestic 
Life of our Indians, 199 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMERICA. 



L- COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY. 

I HATE publicly announced for some time that I 
am prepared to prove in these discourses three 
propositions, to wit : — 

First, — That the discovery and exploration of 
America were Catholic enterprises, undertaken by 
Catholics with Catholic motives, and carried out 
by Catholic cooperation. 

Second, — That the only systematic attempts to 
civilize and Christianize the aborigines were made 
by Catholic missionaries. 

Third, — That the independence of the United 
States was, in a great degree, established by Catho- 
lic blood, talent, and treasure. 

If I succeed in establishing these three propo- 
sitions, — as I believe I shall succeed, — may we not 
hope that the offensive tone of toleration and supe- 
riority so common with sectarians will be hereafter 
abated ; that more merit will be allowed to the 
ages before Protestantism^ which produced all the 

(9) 



10 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



great oceanic discoverers ; that a more respectful 
style may be used in speaking of Spain and Italy — 
the two arms of European civilization first extend- 
ed to draw in and embrace America ? 

If I can show — as I believe I can — that since its 
discovery America has never been wholly broken 
off from its Catholic commencement^ — that saints, 
popes, cardinals, and all the religious orders are 
associated inseparably with its annals, — then may 
I not hope to satisfy you, and through you to per- 
suade your children, that the church is no stranger, 
no intruder, neither unknown nor untried here, 
but that as certainly as it is the oldest institution in 
Europe, so it is the oldest in America ? 

With your indulgence we will follow the chrono- 
logical order. We will begin with Columbus and 
his successors, pass next to the missions among the 
Indian tribes, and then to the revolution and con- 
stitution of the United States. 

It is not easy to cast back the imagination four 
centuries. Can you conceive what Europe was be- 
fore Luther? or can you imagine America before 
Columbus? On this side no better vessel than a 
birch canoe burdened the waters, and the boldest 
native navigator rarely ventured beyond the Nar- 
rows.'^ North of the rude villages of the Natchez 
no towns were known ; but over the land wandered 
a race, red, naked, barbarous, broken into petty 
tribes, unlearned in even the alphabet of civilization, 
Beasts of prey disputed with the wild huntsman tht 
game his flint-head arrow overtook ; and chance 



COLmiBUS AND THE DISCOVERY. 



11 



sown timber fattened on tlie soil the Indian knew 
not how to cultivate. Can yon imagine this conti- 
nent so savage, so sylvan as it then was — ■ so every 
way unlike what it has since become ? 

Turn, then, to the other side. Behold Europe four ( 
centuries since. How unlike the Europe of to-day ! 
Printing had just been discovered ; the ocean was 
as yet a mystery ; Protestantism had not emerged ; 
the Turks had lately taken Constantinople ; the men 
of trade, enrolled in exclusive guilds, pursued the 
arts of peace in the intervals of war ; the Italian 
cities were the centres of that traffic which had not 
yet removed its outposts into Holland or England ; 
Commerce, shivering amidships in her open boat, 
steered from cape to cape, dropping her anchor with 
the evening, to weigh it with the dawn ; walled 
and battlemented cities stretched along the seas and 
rivers, swarming with a laborious and believing 
generation. Above all rose Rome, mother and mis- 
tress of Christian nations, patron of every science, 
protector of every art, preserver of every relic of 
enlightened antiquity. 

Under the fair sky of Italy, Christopher Colum- 
bus, the son of a Genoese wool comber, was born in 
the year of our Lord 1435. At the celebrated Uni- 
versity of Pavia, endowed by Charlemagne and fos- 
tered by the popes, he received some degree of 
education. At fourteen years of age he was at sea ; 
at twenty-four, captain of a galley for Rene of 
Anjou, who claimed to be King of Naples and Jeru- 
salem. In the year 1470 he made his home in the 



12 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



port of Lisbon, "^liere lie married, had a son born to 
liim, and became a widower. Here he dwelt four- 
teen years, (interspersed by voyages into the north 
of Europe.) maintaining himself while on shore as a 
maker and peddler of maps. 

It was an age of uncommon hardihood and specu- 
lation. In geographical science three persons de- 
serve especially to be named as precursors of Co- 
lumbus and the modern era — Cardinal D'Ailly of 
France, Paulo Toscanelli of Florence, and Prince 
Henry of Portugal. 

Cardinal D'Ailly is considered by Humboldt the 
restorer of geographical science. His learning and 
virtues had raised him from a very humble origin 
to the councils of his king and the dignity of car- 
dinal. Among many political cares and employ- 
ments he made time to pursue his favorite studies, 
of which the Imago Miindi remains in evidence. 
This work is supposed to have been of service to 
Columbus. 

Prince Henry of Portugal proved that princes 
might enrich their states as much by science as by 
arms. Led by his love of experimental study, he 
erected a palace at Algarves, on Cape St. Yincent. 
It combined the attractions of a court with the uses 
of an academy. Here he erected an observatory, 
entertained teachers of every art, and studied under 
them as humbly as any of his guests or dependants. 
He had chosen in early youth as a motto, The 
talent to do good," and passed all his life be- 
tween study and prayer. LTnder his auspices the 



COLU^IBUS AND THE BISCOYERY, 



Azores were discovered a,nd Africa partially cir- 
cumnavigated. He died soon after Columbus came 
to Lisbon, leaving Portugal at the head of the mari-^ 
time enterprise of the age. 

Paulo Toscanelli occupied a humbler rank in 
lifCj but a higher place in science. He was a master 
of what remained of the ancient learning and an 
enthusiastic experimentalist. The canons of the 
great Church of St. Mary, in Florence, had given 
him the use of their tower for an observatory. 
There, raised as far above the populous city in space 
as in spirit ; where the sweet incense stole up to 
the sky, saluting him as it ascended ; where the 
solemn bells pealed out the hours around him, — he 
wrote encouraging letters to Columbus and devised 
that conjectural chart of the Atlantic which accom- 
panied the admiral in his iirst voyage. The Tus- 
can died two years before his friend had been ena- 
bled to test in practice their common design. 

At the court of Portugal there arose no successor 
to Prince Henry. Emmanuel, called ''the wise,^' 
had little faith in the learned letters and conjectural 
charts exhibited by the Genoese sailor. After ex- 
hausting every hope, Columbus Oj^uitted Lisbon for 
the court of Spain, where he was destined, not with- 
out long delay and severe trials, to find the patron- 
age he had sought so long. 

It was in the year 1485 that Columbus came into 
Spain, where he spent seven years of negotiation 
and uncertainty before he was enabled to enter on 
a first voyage. From his arrival in Spain it is easy 



14 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



to demonstrate the Catholic character of the man 
and the enterprise. American and British works 
on the discovery (even including the exquisite biog- 
raphy by Mr. Irving) do not bring out boldly the 
high religious character of either. I will endeavor 
to show wherein that character lies, by classifying 
the proofs as they relate to the admiral's intentions, 
to his first friends^ to his conduct of the enterprise, 
and his estimate of it after he had succeeded. 

The admiral might be called for his age, or in- 
deed for any age, a learned layman. His letters 
show an acquaintance with the Christian fathers, 
particularly St. Ambrose and St. Basil ; and with 
the Scriptures, especially the prophetical books 
and the Psalm.s of David. With Marco Palo, 
Cardinal D'Ailly, and other cosmographical wri- 
ters he was familiar. But what gives the most 
decided tinge to his character is his enthusiastic 
devotion, his full conviction that he was an instru- 
ment in the hands of God. He saw visions ; he 
heard heavenly voices ; his dreams were prophetic. 
In Hispaniola, as he lay sick, and off the disastrous 
coast of Yeragua by night, he heard a voice, which 
said to him, " God will cause thy name to be won- 
derfully resounded through the earth, and give thee 
the keys of the gates of ocean, which are closed with 
strong chains.'' * His son and biographer, speaking 
doubtless on hints received from the admiral, ob- 
serves that the name Cohmbus rightly signifies a 

* Humboldt's Examen Critique de I'llistoire de la Geographic, 
t. iii, p. 234. 



COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY. 



15 



dove, as of one ordained " to carry tlie olive branch 
and oil of baptism over the ocean, (like Noah^s 
dove,) to denote the peace and union of the heathen 
people with the church after they had been shut up 
in the ark of darkness and infidelity.'^ Nor is his 
own frequent testimony wanting to prove that he 
considered himself as a special agent of divine Prov- 
idence. In his capitulation with the Spanish sov- 
ereigns ^ he expressly stipulated that the gains aris- 
ing from the discoveries were to be dedicated to the 
ransom of the holy sepulchre. In his letter to 
Pope Alexander after his first voyage, he repeats 
that such was still his purpose. It was,^^ says Mr. 
Irving, " meditated throughout the remainder of his 
life, and solemnly provided for in his wilL'^ f What 
intention could be more Catholic than this? A 
desire to rescue the holy sepulchre from the pollu- 
tion of Mahometanism was the pious passion of the 
believing ages. That passion Columbus shared as 
deeply as St. Bernard, or St. Louis, or Godfrey, or 
Pope St. Pius. He belongs by right to the suc- 
cession of the crusaders, and is every way worthy 
of their company. 

It is no slight evidence of the religious character 
of the admiral that his best friends were found in 
the order of St. Dominic. " The purse of the worthy 
friar, Diego de Deza,'^ (tutor to Prince Juan,) sus- 
tained him in adversity ; | and when, in despair, he 

* Concluded on the Yega of Grenada, April 17, 1492. 
t See Appendix No. I, for this characteristic document, 
t Irving, vol. i. 



CATHOLIC HISTOBY OP AMERICA. 



was about to quit Spain forever, at the convent of 
La Eabida lie found a friend in the prior, Juan 
Perez, who brought him back to confidence and suc- 
cess. Leaving the disheartened suitor to rest him- 
self among his monks, the prior, saddling his mule 
at midnight,^^ departed for the court and gained 
audience of Isabella, When he had urged with all 
his eloquence the suit of his friend, " I will assume 
the undertaking for my ovv^i crown of Castile ! 
exclaimed the illustrious lady. I will pawn my 
jewels to defray the expenses of it if the funds in 
the treasury should be found inadequate!'' The 
Dominican returned rejoicing to La Rabida. Co- 
lumbus retraced his steps to the court ; and the 
expedition was at last decided on. 

Here let us pause. The previous conference at 
Salamanca is often ridiculed for its want of cosmo- 
graphical knowledge and denounced for its bigoted 
adherence to the letter of the Scriptures. It might 
help to mitigate our contempt for the past to sup- 
pose a foreign shipmaster or mapmaker of the 
present day expoun ding a new geographical theory to 
one of our own academies. If the Spaniards were 
not before their age, they were at least not beyond 
instruction ; for we are told that in this very con- 
ference Columbus '^brought over the most learned 
men of the schools " to his side. It is known that 
several high ofl&cials, as the Treasurers Quintanilla 
and St. Angel, were his warm partisans at court. 
Yet granting — which is not the fact — that his 
novel theories met most opposition from churchmen, 



/ 



COLU:^IBUS AND THE DISCOVERY. 



17 



what ^oiild that prove hut that they were stic- 
klers for the letter of the Scriptures ? Churchmen 
have certainly desired to reconcile science to the 
sacred writings ; and for this are they to be accused 
of enmity to both ? Those who would fain fabricate 
another fiction like Galileo's persecution will find 
the facts too stubborn and the light too strong for 
them in the case of Columbus. 

In the foreground of American history there 
stand these three figures — a lady, a sailor, and a 
monk. Might they not be thought to typify Faith, 
Hope, and Charity ? The lady is especially deserv- 
ing of honor. Tears after his first success the ad- 
miral wrote, "In the midst of general incredulity 
the Almighty infused into the queen, my lady, the 
spirit of intelligence and energy. While every one 
else in his ignorance was expatiating on the cost 
and inconvenience, her highness approved of it on 
the contrary, and gave it all the support in her 
power. And what were the distinguishing quali- 
ties of this foster mother of American discovery ? 
Fervent piety, unfeigned humility, profound rever- 
ence for the holy see, a spotless life as daughter, 
mother, wife, and queen. " She is,'^ says a Protes- 
tant author, one of the purest and most beautiful 
characters in the pages of history. Her holy life 
had won for her the title of the Catholic.^' Other 
queens have been celebrated for beauty, for magnifi- 
cence, for learning, or for good fortune ; but the 
foster mother of America alone, of all the vromen of 
history, is called the Catholic.'^ 
2* 



IS 



A? to c: "e have 

first to re::^c.:h, t^::.: ;: : :: P:." :^ crimi- 

nal outfit derv::^T . F P^ i -P: iecri^rr^ on 

the neigl: lio^ o :. Ir. the refectorv of La 
Eabida o^ i : oi oe between Colo :: ; os 

and the F:__:;o:- : :: :on :ho porch of the Clinrcn of 
Sn h r_ : :h r r lers were read to the aston- 
h- r : _ : Tor a: s and assurances of re- 
lioioii vrere ';r:o^h: io":: reqoisition to enc^'oraoe 
sailors, alwa;^ o oo no:: i o: ^ oneration. to :n. :rh 
on this mysterious voyage. C^n the :n : r on 
departure a temporary :o: :. ^ - rr: 
spars and sails on the srr n o f :rr : 
their vessels riding a" : r h : 

crevTi — nnmbering :n V o h o f r : f 
souls — reeei^ai 'h:- fh:^ :f nn:r„:n:^ 
from their knr :n :h:7 f : : :" f "::o :hr : 
of the church, hh: :h- r:: :h :f h:: ~rn n 
sails. 

The ado:hoh h:.f ;-!ao-d h'n:-^!f nnhrr : 
protection :f :or hF: f h f o Hn :~r 
called the Santa Mar C In 

lay the charts dr: "n: n h: ohor:h f 
Maggiore at Flor :„::. Th: hr:: anf F 
land they touched at provo I t : o 5h Mcj 
Azores. The second ish 
La Concepcion. (the first _ 
Salvador.) The whole fleet, • f _ 

custom/' sang the Salve Regina every evening as the 
sun went down.* These are very remarkable &ct3 

- * Xnis exquisite hymn is thus usually translated : — 




COLUMBUS AXD THE DISCOVERY. 



19 



of tlimselves ; but they become still more so Tvlien 
we remember that the see of Eome only a few years 
since, at the unanimous request of our own prelates, 
declared this part of the new world under the 
special patronage of the same Blessed Lady, Co- 
lumbus, in his piety, had been beforehand with the 
bishops in choosing for America its august pa- 
troness. 

On the night before the discovery of the first 
land, after the Salve Regina had been chanted, ac- 
cording to his biographers, the admiral made an 
impressive address to his crew. This speech must 
have been one of the most Catholic orations ever 
delivered in the new world. It has not been re- 
corded : it can never be invented. We can, indeed, 
conceive what a lofty homily on confidence in God 
and his ever Blessed Mother such a man so situat- 
ed would be able to deliver. "We can imagine we 
see him as he stands on the darkened deck of the 
Santa Maria, his thin locks lifted by the breeze al- 
ready odorous of land, and his right hand pointing 
onward to the west. We almost hear him exclaim, 
" Yonder lies the land ! "Where you can see only 
night and vacancy, I behold India and Cathay ! The 

Hail, Queen, Mother of mercy ; hail, our life, our comfort, and 
our hope. 

'■We, the banished childi'en of Eve, cry out unto thee. To thee vre 
send up our sighs, groaning and creeping in this vale of tears. 

" Come, then, our advccrite, and look upon us with those thy piliy- 
ing eyes, 

" And, after this om' banishment, show us Jesus, the blessed fruit of 
thy womb. 

'•' merciful, pious, sweet Vii'gin Mary I " 



20 



CATHOLIC HISTOSY OF AMERICA. 



darkness of the lionr will pass away, and with it 
the night of nations. Cities more beautiful than 
Seville, countries more fertile than Andalusia, are 
off yonder. There lies the terrestrial paradise, 
watered with its four rivers of life ; there lies the 
.golden Ophir, from vv^hich Solomon, the son of Da- 
vid, drew the ore that adorned the temple of the 
living God ; there we shall find whole nations un- 
known to Christ, to whom you, ye favored compan- 
ions of my voyage, shall be the first to bring ' the 
glad tidings of great joy^ proclaimed 'of old by 
angels' lips to the shepherds of Chaldea.' But 
alas ! who shall attempt to supply the words spoken 
by such a man at such a moment, on that last night 
of expectation and uncertainty — the eve of the 
birthday of a new world? 

Columbus and his companions landed on the 
morning of the 12th of October, 1492, on the little 
island which they called San Salvador. Three 
boats conveyed them to the shore : over each boat 
floated a broad banner, blazoned with " a green 
cross." On reaching the land the admiral threw 
himself on his knees, kissed the earth, and shed 
tears of joy. Then, raising his voice, he uttered 
aloud that short but fervent prayer, which, after 
him, all Catholic discoverers were wont to repeat. 
It is in these words : '' Lord God, eternal and 
omnipotent, who by thy divine word hast created 
4l^h^ heavens, the earth, and the sea, blessed and 
glorified be thy name, and praised thy majesty, 
who hast deigned, by me, thy humble servant, to 



COLUMBUS AND TEE DISCOVERY. 



21 



have that sacred name made known and preached 
in this other part of the wovldJ^ ^ 

The nomenclature used by the great discoverer, 
like all his acts, is essentially Catholic. Neither 
his own nor his patron's name is precipitated on 
cape, river, or island. San Salvador, Santa Trini- 
dada, San Domingo, San Nicholas, San Jago, San- 
ta Maria, Santa Marta, — these are the mementoes 
of his first success. All egotism, all selfish policy, 
was utterly lost in the overpowering sense of being 
but an instrument in the hands of Providence. 

After cruising a couple of months among the Ba- 
hamas, and discovering many new islands, he re- 
turns to Spain. In this homeward voyage two 
tempests threaten to ingulf his solitary ship. 
In the darkest hour he supplicates our Blessed 
Lady, his dear patroness. He vows a pilgrimage 
barefoot to her nearest shrine, whatever land he 
makes — a vow punctually fulfilled. Safely he 
reaches the Azores, the Tagus, and the port of Pa- 
les. His first act is a solemn procession to the 
Church of St. George, from which the royal or- 
ders had been first made known. He next writes 
in this strain to the Treasurer Sanchez : " Let pro- 
cessions be made, let festivals be held, let churches 



* The original prayer, as given by Irving, from the Tablas Chrono- 
logieas of Padre Clemente, reads thus : — 

"Domine Dens seterne et omnipotens, sacro tuo verbo caelum, .et 
terram, et mare creasti; benedicatur et glorificetur nomen tuum, lau-' 
detur tua majestas, quae dignita est per humilem servum tuum, ut 
ejus sacrum nomen agnoscatur, et prgedicatur, in hac altera mundi 
parte," 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



be filled with branches and flowers ; for Christ re- 
joices on earth as in heaven, seeing the future re- 
demption of souls/^ The court was, at the time, at 
Barcelona ; and thither he repaired with the living 
evidences of his success. Seated on the royal dais, 
with the aborigines, the fruits, flowers, birds, and 
metals spread out before them, he told to princes 
his wondrous tale. As soon as he had ended, " the 
king and queen, with all present, prostrated them- 
selves on their knees in grateful thanksgiving ; 
while the solemn strains of the Te Deum were 
poured forth by the choir of the Royal Chapel as 
in commemoration of some great victory.^' * 

To place beyond any supposition of doubt the 
Catholicity of this extraordinary event, one evi- 
dence is still wanting — the of&cial participation of 
the sovereign pontiff. That it had from the outset. 

On the 15th of March, 1493, Columbus reached 
Palos. On the 9th of May following Pope Alexan- 
der issued the famous bull, iiiter cetera.f In this 
bull, after reciting the relations of the Spanish sov- 
ereigns to the holy see, the pope proceeds to speak 
of the late discovery in these words : — 

" We have heard to our great joy that you have 
proposed to labor and use every exertion, that the 
inhabitants of certain islands and continents remote 
and hitherto unknown, and of others yet undiscov- 

* Prescott — Ferdinand and Isabella. 

t See Appendix No. II. for this document in full ; also for Count de 
Maistre's commentary upon it. As the first Papal bull concerning 
America, it is worth consideration. 



COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY, 



23 



ered, be reduced to worship our Redeemer and pro- 
fess the Catholic faith. Till now you have been 
fully occupied in the conquest and capture of Gre- 
nada, and could not accomplish your holy and 
praiseworthy desires nor obtain the results you 
wished. Tou sent, not without the greatest exer- 
tions, dangers, and expense, our beloved son Chris- 
topher Colon, a man of worth and much to be com- 
mended, fit for such business, with vessels and car- 
goes, diligently to search for continents and remote 
and unknown islands on a sea hitherto never nav- 
igated ; who finally, with the divine assistance 
and great diligence, navigated the vast ocean, and 
discovered certain most distant islands and conti- 
nents which were previously unknown, in which 
very many nations dwell peaceably, and, as it is 
said, go naked and abstain from animal food/^ 
&c. 

On this recital the required sanction was condi- 
tionally given, the conditions being that the Span- 
iards should not trespass on discoveries already 
made by the Portuguese or any Christian power ; 
that they should not search for land within one 
hundred leagues west and south of the Cape de 
Yerds, already possessed by Portugal ; and that they 
should " send to the said islands and continents 
tried men, who fear God, learned, and skilful and 
expert to instruct the inhabitants in the Catholic 
faith and teach them good morals. 

In accordance with the requirements of the pope, 
there sailed in the second voyage of Columbus the 



24 



Catholic histoby of ameeica. 



Right Rev. Bernardo Biivl. or Boyle, vicar apos- 
tolic for the new v-orld. accompanied by twelve 
priests. The life of this ecclesiastic is less known 
than otherwise might be expected did we not 
learn that, after less than a year in the Island 
of Hayti. he joined in a cabal ag'ainst the admiral, 
and returned to Spain, where he died. He seems 
to have been one of those who precede the apostles 
of nations, but are not destined themselves to be 
apostles. He is. however, to be remembered as 
having consecrated the first Christian church in 
the new world, on the feast of the Epiphany, 
1494 : as having founded the mission of Hayti ; and 
as the first representative of the holy see in this 
region of the earth. His name and acts, obsctire 
as they have become through time and negligence, 
do. nevertheless, supply the last conclusive link of 
evidence to the Catholic character of American dis- 
covery. 

It is time to part with the illustrious sailor who 
has hitherto occupied us exclusively. His charac- 
ter transce' ' ' : ■:^.s his achie^" ■ ^ ' file de- 
scription. . .r.m:.ves not remo stand- 
ing alone in the new creation, or Xoah steering for 
tlie emerging peaks of Ararat. He stands in space 
the patriarch of the Atlantic i-le- and coasts : and 
all may see. who look upon him closely, tfiat the 
prayers of our church move his lips in gratitude, 
while its cross overshadows him wherever ' es. 
What a lesson the life of that first Europe.m .x_.er- 
ican teaches ! How well did he unite faith and sci- 



COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY. 



25 



ence, the pious and the practical virtues ! In the 
presence of Columbus no modern can boast a superi- 
or love of progress ; but his progress was not of the 
kind that leaves religion altogether out of sight : — 

" Toil, and pain, 

Famine, and hostile elements, and hosts 
Embattled failed to check him in his course — 
Not to be wearied, not to be deterred, 
Kot to be overcome." 

Such Vas his career. But, with all the energy 
and courage of the American nature as it now is, 
he united the simplicity of the Catholic and the pa- 
tience of the apostle. In one sentence we may say, 
that, of all the laymen who have lived or who lie 
buried in the new world, he was probably the best, 
as he is certainly the most illustrious, from the sin- 
gular and incomparable nature of his achievements. 



IL-THE SUCCESSORS OF COLOIBUS. 



It miglit plausibly be objected that the character 
of a single actor, however eminent, is not enough 
to stamp its OTvn religious impress on so vast an 
enterprise as the discovery of America. I admit 
the plausibility of the objection ; and. as the plausi- 
ble is often mistaken for the real, it is necessary to 
forestall this fallacious escape, from the conclusion 
"vre have just arrived at. 

The success of Columbus stimulated not only 
Spain, but all Europe, to oceanic enterprise. In this 
new career France may dispute the second place 
with Portugal : England comes next ; Holland and 
Sweden last. The captains under all these powers 
were Catholics : the observances and spirit of each 
expedition were Catholic : the forms used by other 
nations in taking possession or in founding colonies 
were copied after Spain, and of course were Cath- 
olic. A little attention to the principal facts in 
each case will prove this to be an accurate de- 
scription of the whole series of" discoveries. 

The Spaniards themselves 'were the first to fol- 
low up their own work. Alonzo de Ojeda and 
Tasco Xunez de Balboa are the chief of the Spanish 

(2h) 



THE SUCCESSORS OP COLUMBUS. 



27 



captains after Columbus. There are a score of 
others, very eminent in their day ; but these two 
represent the whole order. Ojeda is a character 
history has loved to paint. Intrepid even to rash- 
ness, he well knew how to employ diplomacy when 
force fell short. A cavalier accomplished at all 
points, a courtier outshining all others of his age, 
every historian of American enterprise follows his 
career with willing praise. He was the discov- 
erer of much of the coast of Terra Firma and 
the founder of the colony of San Sebastian. His 
courage, his disasters, his politic shifts were long 
to tell. In his first voyage (1499) he was accom- 
panied by Americus Vespucci, a Florentine, who 
wrote an account of the expedition, and whose now 
forgotten book gave its author's name to the new 
world. For ten years Don Alonzo continued his 
American adventures, and at last died, a baffled, 
broken-hearted wight, at San Domingo, old in 
troubles rather than in years. The character of this 
captain was above all things remarkable for his 
enthusiastic devotion to our Blessed Lady. Bishop 
Las Casas relates that he always carried about him 
a little Flemish painting of the Mother of God, 
which, when wrecked on hostile coasts or bewil- 
dered in pathless wilds, he was wont to fasten 
against the next ti^ee, then kneel before it and de- 
voutly ofi'er up his'^^ayers. Once, having almost 
perished, toiling thr(|ugh the morasses along the 
coast of Cuba, he made a vow to erect a chapel to 
Our Lady at the first village he should meet, and 



28 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



tliere deposit his picture for tlie yeneration of all 
comers. This YO^Y he lived to fulfil ; and the Ma- 
donna of Ojeda vras long held sacred by the Indians 
of Cuevbas/* When at last death overtook him, 

* The subsequent story of Cjeda's picture is thus related by Mr. 
Irving : " Being recovered from his sufferings, Alonzo de Ojeda pre- 
pared to perform his vow concerning the picture of the Virgin ; though 
sorely must it have grieved him to part with a relic to which he attrib- 
uted his deliverance from so many perils. He built a little hermitage, 
or oratory, in the village, and furnished it with an altar, above which 
he placed the picture. He then summoned the benevolent cacique 
and explained to him, as well as his limited knovdedge of the language 
or the aid of interpreters would permit, the main points of the Cath- 
ohc faith, and especially the history of the Yhgin, whom he repre- 
sented as the Mother of the Deity that reigned in the skies and the 
great advocate for mortal man. 

" The worthy cacique listened to him with mute attention ; and though 
he might not clearly comprehen.d the doctrine, yet he conceived a pro- 
found veneration for the picture. The sentiment wa,s shared by his 
subjects. They kept the little oratory always swept clean, and deco- 
rated it with cotton hangings labored by their own hands and with 
various votive offerings. They composed couplets, or areytos, in 
honor of the Virgin, which they sang to the accompaniment of rude 
musical instruments, dancing to the sound under the groves which 
surrounded the hermitage. 

A further anecdote concerning this relic may not be unacceptable. 
The venerable Las Casas, who records these facts, informs us that he 
arrived at the village of Cueybas some time after the departure of 
Ojeda. He found the oratory preserved ^^ith the most religious care 
as a sacred place, and the picture of the Virgin regarded with fond 
adoration. The poor Indians crovv^ded to attend mass, which he per- 
formed at the altar ; they listened attentively to his paternal instruc- 
tions, and at his request brought their children to be baptized. The 
good Las Casas, having heard much of this famous relic of Ojeda, was 
desirous of obtaining possession of it, and ofiered to give the cacique 
in exchange an image of the Virgin which he had brought vv-ith him. 
The chieftain made an evasive answer, and seemed much troubled in 
mind. The next morning he did not make his appearance. 

Las Casas went to the oratory to perform mass, but found the altar 



THE SUCCESSOKS OF COLUMBUS. 



29 



the Christian cavalier desired his body to be buried 
in the porch of the nearest church, " that every one 
who entered might tread upon his grave. 

Yasco Nunez, a bankrupt gentleman of Balboa, 
after holding some minor offices in the colonies, 
found himself, in the year 1512, governor of a set- 
tlement called Santa Maria, on this side the Isth- 
mus of Darien. Eeceiving from an Indian of the 
interior a report of the existence of a great sea 
to the "west, he resolved, with a handful of men, to 
go in quest of it. On foot, through tangled woods 
and fetid marshes, through craggy passes and hos- 
tile tribes, he forced his way for five and twenty 
days. At length he came in sight of a mountain 
top, from which, he was told, the ocean was visible. 
Halting his men on the slope, he advanced alone to 
the summit ; and there, as he beheld the vast Pacific 
Sea spreading leagues away towards the south, he 
fell upon his knees in an ecstasy of joy and poured 
forth the full fervor of his Catholic heart to God. 
What a subject for contemplation, the glory and the 
humility of Balboa at that hoar ! Much as we may 

stripped of its precious relic. On inquiring, he learned that in the 
night the cacique had fled to the vroods, bearing off with him his be- 
loved picture of the Virgin. It "^vas in yain that Las Casas sent mes- 
sengers after him assuring him that he should not be deprived of the 
relic, but, on the contrary, that the image should likewise be presented 
to him. The cacique refused to venture from the fastnesses of the 
forest ; nor did he return to his village and replace the picture in the 
oratory until after the departure of the Spaniards." — Las Casas, Hist. 
Ind., cap. 61, manuscript. Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib. ix. 
cap, 15. 

3 * 



30 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



admire liis zeal and courage in tliG exploration, still 
more ought we to honor the deep sense of devotion 
which seized him on seeing for the first time, and 
alone, one of God's most wonderful works. The 
isthmus he governed is no longer a wilderness nor 
.the Pacific a blank waste of waters. Cities are 
there ; commerce is there ; wealth is there. The 
dream of Columbus is almost realized ; and the trade 
of India will yet be brought that way to Europe. 
Crowds of eager adventurers checker the land with 
new routes, and both oceans are alive with ships ; 
but few of all who have to thank God for homes 
or fortunes on the Pacific shore have the moral 
courage to cast themselves, like Yasco Nunez, on 
their knees and render their first homage to the 
Lord of land and sea, the Giver of wealth and of 
conquest. 

Farther southward still, the Portuguese discov- 
erers, Cabral and Orellana, carried on the work of 
exploration. Finally, on the utmost southern cape 
the pious Magellan planted the cross. In all the 
Portuguese voyages, the same religious characteris- 
tics prevail as in those of the Spaniards. 

At the north we once more meet with the Italian 
genius in Verazzano and the Cabots. From the 
Chesapeake Bay to Massachusetts they coasted the 
continent, entered its rivers, and erected crosses on 
cape after cape. The Cabots were in the service 
of England ; but as yet England was Catholic, and 
the creed of an Italian was no insuperable bar to 
his employment. This section of the continent, 



THE SUCCESSORS OP COLUMBUS. 



31 



which now prides itself on its peculiarly Protestant 
antecedents, was thus found and described by our 
predecessors in the faith a full century before the 
Puritan or the Quaker had yet dreamed of colonizing 
in the new world. 

Still farther north we come upon a new manifes- 
tation of Catholic energy and piety — the French 
discoveries. Verazzano was in this service ; but 
he perished at sea on his second voyage, and his 
fame has been eclipsed by that of Jaques Cartier, 
discoverer of the St. Lawrence and founder of 
Quebec. He is the leader of an illustrious band — 
the Champlains and La Salles. It is proper to 
make some brief mention of each of these person- 
ages. Cartier sailed on his first voyage from St. 
Malo on the 20th of April, 1534 ; and on the 24th 
of July following he erected a cross, thirty feet 
high, on the shores of Gaspe Bay. Like all the 
rest of the early captains, he was a man of real 
piety. In the Cathedral of St. Malo he received 
the blessed sacrament and the benediction of the 
church on his departure and return from each 
voyage. His discoveries he generally named after 
the saints on whose festivals they were made. St. 
Laurent, L^Isle de TAssumption,* St. Croix, the St. 
Charles River, St. Roques, mark the series of his 
successes and the spirit of the man. He especially 
held it fortunate that he had discovered " the begin- 
ning of Canada on " the vigil of the Blessed Vir- 
gin/^ his star of the sea also. 



* Now Anticosti. 



32 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



Champlain. tlie most CListinguislied of the succes- 
sors of Cartier, sailed for the St. LaTrrence in the 
year 1603. For two and thirty years he continued 
the indefatigable explorer of the north-west. " To 
him.''' says Mr. TTarburton. " belongs the glory of 
planting Christianity and civilization among the 
snoTTS of these northern forests.'" * Champlain.'* 
says Mr. Bancroft. " considered the salvation of one 
soul as of more importance than the conquest of an 
empire. He vras the navigator of the Upper St. 
Lawrence, the discoverer of the lake that bears his 
name, and of the Lake St. Sacrament. f He was the 
founder of many towns, the patron of all the mis- 
sions, the friend of the Indians, the first and the best 
governor of Xew France. 

Eobert, Cavalier La Salle, as the first explorer 
who navigated Ontario, Erie. Michigan, and Huron, 
deserves to be enumerated with the great captains. 
A native of Souen, early employed in the colonies, 
he had been instigated by the reports of missiona- 
ries to seek through the northern lakes a passage 
to the Gulf of Mexico. Building a schooner on the 
Cayuga Creek, he ascended ihe lakes in 1679 chant- 
ing the Te Beum Laudamus. Carrying his boats 
overland from the Miami to a branch of the Illinois 
River, he forced or found his vray into the L^pper 
Mississippi. For many years, with most heroic con- 
stancy, this soul of fire and frame of iron was de- 
voted to the task of opening routes between the 



* V/arburton's Conquest of Canada, vol. i. p. 9G. 
t Is'ow Lake George. 



THE SUCCESSORS OP COLUMBUS. 



33 



Gulfs of St. Lawrence and of Mexico, until lie per- 
ished in his enterprise by the hands of two of his 
own unworthy followers, on an excursion into Tex- 
as, in 1687. The Catholic character of La Salle is 
marked in every act of his life. He undertook 
nothing v/ithout fortifying himself by religion ; he 
completed nothing without giving the first fruits of 
the glory to God. He planted the cross wherever 
he landed even for an hour ; he made the western 
desert vocal with songs, hymns of thanksgiving, and 
adoration. He is the worthy compeer of De Soto 
and Marquette ; he stands sword in hand under the 
banner of the cross, the tutelary genius of those 
great states which stretch away from Lake Ontario 
to the Rio Grande. Every league of that region he 
trod on foot, and every league of its water he navi- 
gated in frail canoes or crazy schooners. Above 
his tomb the northern pine should tower ; around 
it the Michigan rose and the southern myrtle should 
mingle their hues and unite their perfumes. 

The career of La Salle forms a perfect counter- 
part to that of the illustrious De Soto, who, leaving 
behind him Cuba, of which he was captain gen- 
eral, landed at Tampa Bay, in the year 1539, to ex- 
plore the mainland. For three years, without sup- 
plies, he pursued his plans, traversing poisonous 
swamps and burning sands, rafting bayous and ford- 
ing rivers, unwearied, but not unworn. He saw his 
men perish around him month after month ; he was 
incessantly assailed by the hardy natives of the re- 
gion ; he knew that repose and riches awaited him 



34 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 

in Cuba or in Spain ; but he scorned to turn back 
or to confess a failure. At last, by the great river 
he had discovered, in the shadow of the cross 
he had planted, he died ; and the loyal remnant of 
his once proud company buried his body by night 
in the midst of the stream, lest the savages should 
devour it. Thus perished Don Hernando de Soto, 
in all great qualities the equal of the most illustri- 
ous explorers ; thus he fell in the wilderness, and 
the sorrowing Mississippi took him in pity to her 
breast. 

British books of history in general have present- 
ed only two figures — Cortez and Pizarro — as the 
successors of Columbus, and all their actions have 
been painted in pitch. American history has been 
more just. Irving, Bancroft, and above all Pres- 
cott, have done justice to the noble Spanish nation, 
and even to Francisco Pizarro. Mr. Prescott pref- 
aces his History of the Conquest of Peru by an anal- 
ysis of the civilization of the Incas. That civiliza- 
tion, poetized by the infidel Marmontel, will be found 
to rest on fundamental laws repugnant to all Chris- 
tian ethics. Its worship was a perpetual human 
sacrifice ; its people were held in the darkest igno- 
rance ; the laws requiring the Inca always to marry 
his sister established incest as the condition of le- 
gitimacy. Such was the system ; and the Inca Pi- 
zarro overthrew was undoubtedly one of the most 
sanguinary that ever sat on the golden throne of 
Manco Capac. That guilty civilization, I know, does 
not justify the cruelties of its conquerors ; it would 



THE SUCCESSOES OF COLUMBUS. 



35 



justify a strong and sweeping, but not a bloody and 
perfidious policy, such as in general Pizarro pur- 
sued. But it is not honest to confound him with 
Cortez. In his History of the Conquest of Mexi- 
co, the distinguished American historian has shown 
that the alleged excessive cruelties of Cortez have 
been much exaggerated ; nor is it possil^le to look 
on the present population of Mexico and believe 
that at any time extermination of the natives was 
the policy of the conquerors. The native race still 
remain to testify by their overwhelming numbers 
to the general humanity of their Spanish invaders. 
But, whatever may be said on this head, I confess I 
cannot see much resemblance in the characters of 
Cortez and Pizarro. 

Cortez, a don by rank, a lawyer by education, 
landed on the Mexican coast in the spring of 1519, 
and in the autumn of 1521 sat an unquestioned con- 
queror in the oft-quoted " halls of the Montezumas.^^ 
The most brilliant campaigns which the new world 
has seen were fought by him in three short summers. 
Cortez was not only, like the rest, brave as a Castil- 
ian, but he was a very able, and perhaps an origi- 
nal, statesman ; he was, besides, a true Spanish ora- 
tor and a graceful and powerful writer. His 
burning the ships, as soon as he had landed, to cut 
off every chance of retreat ; his coup d'etat in seiz- 
ing the person of the Aztec emperor : his conquest 
of his rival Xarvaez, and incorporation into his 
own ranks of the very men sent to capture him, — 
evince genius of a high order. In some qualities 



36 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA^ 



lie is, perhaps, the greatest character that ever stood 
on the soil of the new world, either at the north, or 
the south, or the centre. 

Of the conqueror of Peru it is impossible to speak 
in terms of forbearance. Base by birth, and unfor- 
tunate in all his early career, he landed with some 
two hundred men on the Pacific coast, in 1532, to 
undertake the conquest of Peru. He succeeded, not 
by a series of fierce battles or wise precautions, but 
by the coup of Caxamalca. In one year he had 
seized the Inca, executed him, and divided fifteen 
and a half millions of gold and silver spoils between 
the crown and his own followers. He died in 1541, 
by the hand of an assassin, in his palace at Lima, 
after having reached the rank he so much coveted 
— Viceroy of Peru. Between him and Cortez there 
are more points of difference than of resemblance. 
The main likeness is in this — that both with small 
forces conquered populous regions in the same age 
and quarter of the world. But Hernando Cortez 
was the first, was an original, and had many pecu- 
liar difficulties to overcome. The Aztec policy and 
paganism were of hardier growth than the Peruvi- 
an ; the resistance of Mexico was more formidable 
than that of Cuzco or Quito. Cortez was a schol- 
ar, a cavalier trained in the old Spanish school ; he 
was naturally generous and merciful, if we judge 
him by facts, not by the prejudiced portraits of Eng- 
lish historians, who have never forgiven Spain for 
the Armada ; or by French infidels, who have never 
forgiven her for her orthodoxy. 



THE SUCCESSORS OP COLUMBUS. 



3T 



PizaiTO, on tlie other hand, is an exception to all 
the Spanish captains. Born a bastard, he was reared 
a foundling ; untaught to read or ivrite, the stand- 
ing target of faction, with no true friends but his 
own wit and courage, he triumphed by cruelty ; 
he fell by assassination. I say that he is no fair 
type of the class I speak of : he stands alone, and 
owes his sad celebrity partly to the fact that he 
does stand alone. Unlike Nunez in humanity, un- 
like Cortez in statesmanship, unlike De Soto in 
chivalry, he cannot be correctly said to belong in 
spirit to the first discoTcrers ; nor can it be shown 
that he formed any school of his own. I would fain 
make this distinction clearly understood, for the sake 
of the truth of history. 

hile I have not felt free to denounce the whole 
Spanish race for the sins of some of their first 
chiefs and settlers, neither must you understand me 
as justifying all their actions. Their colonial sys- 
tem was unquestionably very liable to abuse, as I 
may show when I come to contrast it with the 
French system, in the missionary period of this 
history. I speak at present only of the first cap- 
tains ; and I solemnly protest against accepting 
a Pizarro or an Ovando as a representative of the 
Catholic leaders of American discovery. Ojeda, 
Vasco Nunez, Cortez, De Soto, Cabot, Cartier, 
Champlain, La Salle, — why are they forgotten or 
unstudied ? In all that distinguishes human nature 
— as courage, energy, fortitude — they were con- 
spicuous ; in piety, virtue, integrity, they will bear 
4 



38 CATHOLTC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 

comparison with any equal number of tlie world^s 
great men. Pizarro is not of them — Ovando is 
not of them. They were not free from faults ; but 
neither did their faults outnumber their virtues. 
They were a brood of eagles, emigrating farther 
and farther into the wilderness as population 
sounded from behind. Most of them died in the 
regions they had marked out for their own. None 
of them fared better than Columbus — none of 
them ruled in their posterity. In the islands or on 
Terra Firma, Avith two exceptions, their unknown 
graves are scattered in solitary places, and the 
names they dreamed to make immortal are now 
almost unknown. " The last have become first, and 
the first have become last.^' 



III.-THE ABORIGINES AND MISSIONARIES. 

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
North America — to which we will hereafter con- 
fine the subject — was claimed in parcels by Spain, 
France, England, and Holland. The exact civil 
lioundaries of each power at that period cannot be 
traced, from their constant fluctuations and the fre- 
quent disputes between the parent countries. In the 
present discourse we shall consider each religion in 
its relations to the aborigines. The Catholic colo- 
nies come first in order of time. Let us ask at the 
outset. Was the colonial system of Spain or France 
favorable, or the reverse, to missionary enterprise ? 
I have no hesitation in saying that the Spanish 
system was unfavorable, and that most of the re- 
ligious good done in New Spain was done mot only 
without, but against, the influence of the Spanish 
crown. Ferdinand of Arragon, a thorough world- 
ling in politics and in philosophy, after the death 
of " the Catholic^' wrung by concordat from Eome 
the nomination of all the bishops, and, through the 
bishops, of all the cures of New Spain. He already 
held its whole soil in fee for the crown ; he now 
claimed and obtained, on certain conditions, the 

(39) 



40 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



right to control and farm all its ecclesiastical rev- 
enues. Practically these concessions made him the 
head of the Spanish American church — an evil 
headship, from the effects of which that church has 
never recovered. Further : his claiming the per- 
petual fee of the soil was unfavorable to the free 
emigration of a European laity. It was favorable 
only to the emigration of officials or the exporta- 
tion of convicts. As Dr. Eobertson remarks, The 
colonies were kept in a state of perpetual pupilage/^ 
while ^^the prisons of Spain were drained to re- 
cruit them. We learn, hardly without surprise, that, 
sixty years after the discovery of the new world, 
the number of Spaniards in all its provinces is com- 
puted not to have exceeded fifteen thousand^ * Thus 
royal avarice defeated itself and created innumera- 
ble impediments for religion. 

The colonial system of France was much more 
favorable to missions than the Spanish system. The 
king had originally granted the viceroyalty of New 
France to the Prince of Conde, who in 1620 sold it 
to the Marshal de Montmorenci ; from whom again 
it was purchased by Henry de Levi, Duke de Ven- 
tadour, at the time a novice of the company of 
Jesus. Richelieu transferred it again to a company 
called the Company of one Hundred Associates, 
under whom both Ac|dia and Canada began to 
flourish. But throughout, though the French crown 
claimed the fee of the soil, its policy was always to 

* Robertson's America, book viii. p. 02. 



THE ABORIGINES AND MISSI02TAEIES. 



41 



grant large tracts to seigneurs— a policy not iinfaYor- 
able to the settlement of new colonies. The bish- 
ops also had seigneurial rights, but \Yere, especially 
during the long reign of Louis XIV., directly de- 
pendent on the cro vrD . Some of the religious houses 
— as the Sulpicians of Montreal — had similar rights, 
and were thereby enabled to undertake distant en- 
terprises and to found extensive establishments for 
educational purposes. It is true nevertheless, both 
of New France and New Spain, that the religious 
orders, unaided and unendowed by the parent state, 
effected more than the secular clergy and their am- 
ply endowed establishm.ents combined. 

We have already seen that, within two months 
after Colum.bus's return, the pope had cliarged the 
Spanish sovereigns, in the bull inter cetera^ to send out 
to the newly-discovered countries " tried men, who 
fear God, and skilful and expert to instruct the inhab- 
itants in the Catholic faith and teach them good 
morals.'^ Julius II. and all subsequent popes Vv'ere 
equally zealous for the salvation of the same race, 
of which the memorable bull of Pope Paul III., 
issued in 1537, declaring them to be rational crea- 
tures, entitled to all the sacraments of religion, is 
a crowning proof.* Columbus himself was most 
desirous for the conversion of the Indians, in which 
desire he was cordially seconded by Queen Isabella. 
"She was filled, says Mr. Irving, with a pious 
zeal at the idea of effecting such a work of salva- 



* See Appendix Ko. III. 

4# 



42 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



tion.'^ For the six Indians first presented at court 
she stood godmother. Isabella, from the first/*' 
adds Irving, took the most warm and compassion- 
ate interest in the welfare of the Indians. She 
ordered that great care should be taken of their 
religious instruction ; that they should be treated 
with the utmost kindness ; and enjoined Columbus 
to inflict signal punishment on all Spaniards who 
should be guilty of outrage or injustice towards 
them.'' On the second voj^age, twelve zealous and 
able priests, under the Eight Rev. Bernardo Boyle as 
vicar apostolic, commenced the work of religion by 
consecrating a chapel at Isabella, in Hayti, on the 
feast of the Epiphany, in the year of our Lord 1494. 
That is the historical date of the Catholic religion 
in the new world. The new vicar apostolic did not 
long remain, as we have before said, in Hayti : after 
a year's sojourn he sailed for Spain, and did not re- 
turn. The seven following years the islands were 
left without any regular ecclesiastical head, until, 
in 1501, Bishop de Espinal, ^'a venerable and pious 
man," with twelve Franciscan fathers, was sent out 
to conduct the missions. In the next year Father 
Bartholomew Las Casas, a Dominican, entered on 
the American mission. The whole of his future 
life, a space exceeding sixty years, was devoted to 
vindicating the cause and endeavoring to meliorate 
the sufferings of the natives. As a missionary he 
traversed the wilderness of the new world in vari- 
ous directions, seeking to convert and civilize them ; 
as a protector and champion he made several voy- 



THE ABOPJGIXES AXD MISSI0XARIE3. 



43 



ages to Spain, yindicated their wrongs before courts 
and monarclis, wrote Yolumes in their behalf, and 
exhibited a zeal, and constancy, and intrepidity 
worthy of an apostle. He died at the adyanced 
age of ninety-two, and was bnried at Madrid, in 
the Church of the Dominican conyent of Atocha, of 
which fraternity he was a member."' ^ 

Upon one of Las Casas's complaints of injustice 
to the Indians, (A. D. 1516.) a commission, composed 
of Hieronymite monks, was sent out by the regent. 
Cardinal Ximenes, to inquire into the grieyances 
of the aborigines. This commission is a remarkable 
link in our chain of eyidence. All historians speak 
in the highest terms of the discretion and justice 
of the Hieronymites. The exercise of their powers 
at San Domingo made a great sensation in the new 
world, and for a time had a beneficial effect in 
checking the oppressiye and licentious conduct of 
the colonists.'^ t The same illustrious cardinal 
'•peremptorily^^ rejected, according to Robertson, 
applications for licenses to import African slayes 
into the colony — thus honorably connecting his 
name by a double seryice to humanity with our 
earliest ciyilization. 

T\"e may mention here another historical Domini- 
can—Father Olmedo, chaplain to Cortez. Mr. 
Prescott represents him as the good genius of the 
expedition ; as wise as beneyolent ; *• beautifully 
illustrating in his conduct the precepts which he 

* In-ing's Columbus, vol. iii. ; Appendix, p. 416. 
t Irving, vol. iii. p. 237. 



44 



CATEOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



taugiit ; ^' as one vrho. if lie folloTred the banners 
of the \varrior, it Tras to mitigate the ferocity of 
^ar. and to turn the triumphs of the cross to a good 
account for the natives themselyes, by the spiritual 
labors of conversion.*^ After the conquest of the 
city tiie same author adds, The missionaries lost 
no time in the good vork of conversion. They be- 
gan their preaching through interpreters until they 
had acquired a competent knowledge of the language 
themselves. They opened schools and founded col- 
leges, in which the native youth were instructed in 
profane as well as Christian learning.*^ Twenty 
years after the conquest Father Toribio " could make 
the pious vaunt that * nine millions of converts had 
been admitted within the Christian fold.^''^ In the 
much diminished territory of Mexico as it is, there 
were, in 1850, four millions of Indian Christians, 
practical or nominal, two millions of mixed race, and 
one million three hundred thousand of European 
descent. If populousness be, as Lord Bacon says, a 
test of civil society, the preservation of the aborigi- 
nes may certainly be called so, and be adduced as 
a proof of Spanish tolerance. The aborigines are 
still there ; they are not exterminated ; they are 
Christians, who live mxOre or less up to that high 
and holy standard ; they present in Mexico, at this 
hour, a living monument of the saving spirit of 
Catholic civilization.* 

* In a lecture on Mexico, delivered at St. Patrick's Church, Buffalo, 
on the 2'5th of September, 18-53, by the venerable Bishop Timon, who 
had lately passed some months in that country, he observed, — 



THE ABORIGIXES AND MISSIONARIES. 



45 



Connected witli the Mexican missions, I might 
mention those of the Jesuits in California which 
still happily exist, and which were the only centres 
of civilization before the discovery of the gold 
mines. Anciently California was included under the 
name of Mexico, and is, I presume, comprised in the 
general results I have given. One fact peculiar to 
that region ought, however, to be mentioned. Father 
Picola, who was there a century and a half ago, 
was not unaware of the treasures it contained. " I 
have no doubt,'^ he wrote to the Mexican govern- 
ment in 1702, " that most valuable mines might be 
discovered in many places were they but sought for ; 
since this country is under the same physical influ- 
ences as Cinaloa and Sonora, which are so richly 
veined with the precious metals. He had no doubt 
gold was there ; but for his part he was better em- 
ployed than to prospect for it — unlike those Episco- 
palian ministers of our own day whoso mining zeal 
and missionary languor have been so eloquently de- 

"An eTil now, as formerly, exists in Mexico, and might account 
for much, relaxation of discipline. Bishops are too few ; it is morally 
and physically impossible for them to fulfil the duties of their office. 
France has seyenty-seTen bishops and fourteen archbishops ; Ireland, 
with seven millions of Catholics and a territory not more extensive 
than a single diocese of Mexico, has four archbishops and twenty-four 
bishops ; and Mexico, with seven or eight millions of Catholics and a 
territory so vast, has only one archbishop and nine bishoprics, v>ith 
actually only six bishops, the former incumbents being dead. Of the 
last four bishops of Guadalajara, but one, during a very long adminis- 
tration, was able once, and only once, to visit all his diocese ; the other 
three visited but a small part ; the whole four died on the visit — one as 
he completed it, the others as they labored aloug it." 



^46 



CATPIOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



plored ill the convention of their sect lately sitting 
in New York.^ 

Against the civilizing effects of the Spanish mis- 
sions the wild life led by the mounted tribes of Texas 
(Camanches and Apaches) has been sometimes cited. 

* The Protestant Episcopal Convention for 1853. At this conven- 
tion Dr. Kip, author of " The Jesuits in America," was appointed their 
bishop in California. Here we may mention that, after the Provincial 
Council of 1852, San Francisco was raised by the holy see to the dig- 
nity of a metropolitan church, and the first bishop of Monterey, the 
Right Rev. Joseph Allemany, translated thereto. It may not be con- 
sidered amiss if we put on record in this place an extract as to the ori- 
gin of San Francisco from one of the newspapers (the Golden Era) 
now published in that city : — 

" How great,'* exclaims this writer, **are the changes in the womb 
of Time ! Upon the 27th of June, 1776, seventy-seven years ago, San 
Francisco first became known in history. Father Junipero de Laru, 
one whose name and deeds in Upper California have secured the proud- 
est niche in its history, — one whose monument should stand in the 
first place in our public square, as a testimonial of respect, — landed at 
this place, accompanied by a few settlers from Sonora. Was it the de- 
sire of gold that attracted him hither ? Certainly not. Was it the 
desire to take possession of its property ? No. Was it the desire to 
live independent of Mexico ? No ; none of these. It was to make 
spiritual conquests — to reduce the savage to the yoke of Christ — to 
illustrate the doctrines of the true God in his own life and precepts. 
And fully he accomplished the task. Look a-t that old Presido and 
that venerable Mission of Dolores, and behold the first house erected. 
These are his handiwork. San Francisco has this at least to boast of, 
that the first building erected within it was dedicated to God's worship 
Xinder the patronage of St. Francis. 

The Mission Dolores was founded on the 8th of October, 1776. 
Its population was composed of a few soldiers at the presido. In 1836 
the first house within the limits of the city was erected by S. P. Lery, 
an American, on Dupont Street. At this time there were fifteen sol- 
diers at the military post, under the command of Gamazonila Flores ; 
while at the Mission Dolores the population of emigrants and their 
descendants was about sixty-four souls, exclusive of Indians." 



THE A30RIGIXES AND MISSIONARIES. 



47 



And who rises to accuse tliom ? The whites in Tex- 
as are surely not blameless for the state of things 
as they are. The most clistingnishecl of their num- 
ber — General Houston — has assured me that the 
Indians iieve?^ were the first to break the treaties.'^ 
He is an unimpeachable witness ; for he has been a 
chief among the savages and a lawgiver of the 
whites. Besides, we know that the Indian mis- 
sions,"^ with their schools and chapels, were long 
since wasted by the Xorth Americans settled in 
Texas. In the neighborhood of San Antonio de 
Bexar the painful evidence is displayed to every 
passer by, in the desertion and destruction of the 
once flourishing schools of Concepcion and San 
Jose.^' The 7iopal and the peach now ripen on the 
ruins of those establishments ; Italian columns lie 
prone on the earth ; and Seville bells swing with the 
wind in roofless belfries. It does not well become 
those who have made such ruins to arise in accusa- 
tion against the Camanches. 

The early Dominican and Jesuit missionaries in 
Florida are worthy of special remembrance. The 
first fathers of whom mention is made were two 
who left Spain in 15-1:7, armed with an ordinance 
that all natives of Florida held as slaves in the 
islands since De Soto's expedition should be liber- 
ated. Soon after reaching Florida they were scalped 
and eaten by the savages. In 1565 Father Marti- 
nez, the first Jesuit who entered the same territory, 
shared the same fate. In 1578 three more of the 



48 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



same order perished in the same manner. But after 
a long and ferocious existence, extending till the 
beginning of the next century, it was given to the 
reformed Franciscans to convert Florida. Chris- 
tianity for a while reigned over the everglades, and 
its solemn hymns resounded from many belfries be- 
sides those of St. Augustine. Colonial warfare, 
inhuman traffic, and Protestant persecution at last 
blighted the growing good and effaced the glorious 
work so bravely commenced and so fearlessly 
carried forward in all the provinces of New 
Spain. ^ 

The northern missions, interrupted by the first 
capture of Quebec in 1629, were resumed by the 
Jesuits immediately on its restoration. From that 
event till the Iroquois war there were ten years 
of peace and missionary triumph. Within ten 
years,'' says Dr. O'Callaghan, ^' they had completed 
the examination of the country from Lake Superior 
to the gulf, and founded several villages of Chris- 

* From the accounts which I have given of the humane and per- 
severing zeal of the Spanish missionaries, in protecting the helpless 
flock committed to their charge, they appear in a light which reflects 
lustre upon their function. They were ministers of peace, who en- 
deavored to wrest the rod from the hands of oppressors. To their 
powerful interposition the Americans were indebted for every regula- 
tion tending to mitigate the rigor of their fate. The clergy in the 
Spanish settlements, regular as well as secular, are still considered by 
the Indians as their natural guardians, to whom they have recourse 
imder the hardships and exactions to which they are too often ex- 
posed." — Robertson's ^mmm, book viii. p. 249. London edition of 
Jones and Co., 1826. 



THE ABORIGINES AND MISSIONARIES. 49 

tian neophytes on the borders of the upper lakes. 
While the intercourse of the Dutch was yet con- 
fined to the Indians in the vicinity of Fort Orange, 
and five years before Eliot, of New Englandj^had 
addressed a single word to the Indians, within sis 
miles of Boston Harbor the French missionaries 
planted the cross at Sault Ste. Marie, whence they 
looked down on the Sioux country and the valley 
of the Mississippi/^ * 

In the midst of these successes the Iroquois war 
broke out — a war in which paganism, incited and 
armed by Protestantism, furiously assailed the only 
Christian missionaries who had yet ventured into 
the depths of the forest. The war,'^ says Mr, 
Shea, proved fatal to the allies of the French. In 
1650 Upper Canada was a desert ; and not a mission, 
not a single Indian, was to be found where but- a 
few years before the cross towered in each of their 
many villages and hundreds of fervent Christians 
gathered round their fifteen missions.^' f Six fa- 
thers had won the mar|yr^s crown ; one was muti- 
lated for life ; and some of those who escaped had 
only deferred their time a few years later. In the 
massacre the missions in the western part of New 
York were destroyed and Father Garnier put to 
death. Father Isaac Jogues, illustrious for courage 
and sufferings, escaped with mutilation, returned to 

* O'CaUagliaii's Doc. History of New York, vol. i. 
t Shea's Exploration of the Mississippi. 



50 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OP AMERICA. 



France, but, burning with predestined zeal, came 
back some years after, and met his heroic death in 
the Mohawk valley. This mission notwithstanding 
was reopened again and again until the state 
passed into English hands, when the penal laws 
were most rigorously enforced. 

The martyrdom of Lallemand and Broebeuf upon 
Lake Huron deserves to be cited. In' the winter of 
1649 their missionary village was captured by a war 
party of pagan Iroquois armed with Dutch fire- 
locks. Incisions were made in their flesh, in which 
redhot iron was thrust ; and one of them, Lallemand, 
had his eyes torn out and two burning coals fixed 
in the bleeding sockets. The Christian Indians, at- 
tempting to rescue their apostles, were defeated. 
One of the chiefs counselled retreat ; but another 
nobly made answer, " What ! shall we abandon 
these kind teachers, who have perilled their lives in 
our behalf ? Their desire for our salvation will be 
the cause of their death. There is now no time for 
their escape through the snow. Let us die with 
them and bear them company to heaven.^' This 
was the declaration of a Huron chief, uttered cen- 
turies ago in the teeth of a victorious majority — a 
declaration which raises him in true heroism far 
above those quasi Catholics of our own day who 
attempt to conciliate by compromising the known 
truth. If ever trials of life and death should come 
again for the church in America, may there be found 
a laity to say with the Huron chief of the priest- 



THE ABORIGINES AXD MISSIOXARIES. 



51 



hood, Let us die vritii tliem and bear them com- 
pany to heaven/' ^ 

It would be impossible to particularize the other 
martyrdoms which are on record as occurring in the 
north and west in the early Indian wars. 

The massacre of the Christian neophytes, includ- 
ing Fathers Du Poisson and Sorel, by the Xatchez 
tribe, 1729, was almost equal in atrocity to the 
Iroquois martyrdom. The memory of these illus- 
trious martyrs dwells upon the Mississippi as that 
of Lallemand at the Sault, of Jogues in the valley 
of the Mohawk, and Easles on the Penobscot 
Eiver. No America-n Catholic can ever behold 
without admiration those scenes of true glory, nor 
hear even their names mentioned without emotion. 

Shall I seek to name the chief apostles of Indian 
nations — Jogues and Le Moyne of the Iroquois ; the 
martyrs I have just mentioned among the Hurons ; 
AUouez, the apostle of Lake Superior ; Granier of 
the Illinois ; Marquette of Michigan ; Gravier of 
the Miamis ; Guignas of Wisconsin ; Boullanger of 
the Choctaws ; De Guyenne of the Alabamas ; 
White of the Susquehannas ; Rasles of the Abnakis ; 
and Marest of Labrador? Some others, equal in 
services and in sufferings, might be called up ; but 
these will suffice as representatives of the Jesuits 
in America. Prom the beginning of the seventeenth 
century till the suppression of that illustrious order, 



* For an illustration of the effects of the missions on tlie Indian 
females, see Appendix No. Y. 



52 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



it gave to America the most learnedj intrepid, pious^ 
and laborious body of pioneers and teachers that 
ever stood on the soil of this continent. I will go 
further. I will say, that, in the whole history of 
Christian missions, there is not to be found a class 
of apostles superior in the main to the first Amer- 
ican Jesuits. 

In Lower Canada their missions were most nu- 
merous ; in Upper Canada they had fifteen fathers ; 
in the Illinois country three ; in Arkansas, Wiscon- 
sin, Alabama, and Carolina, one each ; in Louisiana, 
some six or ten ; in all, before the suppression, prob- 
ably fifty fixed missions, with central points in Aca- 
dia, at Quebec, Three Rivers, Detroit, Mackinac, 
Kaskaskia, St. Louis, Natchez, and New Orleans. 
Throughout all this immense region, from gulf to 
gulf, opportunities of conversion were offered to all 
the barbarous native nations long before a Protes- 
tant preacher had ventured a hundred miles from 
any Dutch or English fortress on a similar errand. 
When at length the French infidels triumphed over 
the Jesuits, in 1763, the missions of North America 
lost their best supplies. It is very true that others 
were not wanting to take their place ; but none had 
equal success. After the happy restoration by 
Pope Pius VII., the Jesuits again appeared in Can- 
ada, on the Kennebec, at the Sault Ste. Marie, and 
beyond the Rocky Mountains. In those far regions 
Fatherb De Smet, Accolti, and Barraga, our own 
contemporaries, have proved themselves not un- 
worthy of the traditions of their order. 



THE ABOEIGIXES AXD l^ISSIOXARIES 



53 



Among the efforts of our missionaries for Indian 
civilization I have placed first tlieir religious ser- 
vices, because these almost equally benefit the indi- 
vidual, the family, and society at large. To com- 
prehend their real value, ttc must imagine vrhat vras 
the superstition they had to displace. The belief 
in viajiitous, or spirits, inhabiting animals and pro- 
tecting or cursing men, Tvas general throughout 
North America : human sacrifices vrere also gen- 
eral : the povrer of the medicine men was arbitrary 
for life or death : polygamy prevailed among the 
Illinois ; and indiscriminate intercourse, to some ex- 
tent, among all the tribes. It Tvas a superstition 
■without mercy, without morality, without remorse ; 
under its sway no mental or social culture was 
possible. Against this terrible barbarism Spain 
and France, north and south, put forth their power 
and their missionaries : and the valleys of the Jiis- 
sissippi and the St. Lawrence, the prairies of Illi- 
nois and the borders of the great lakes, in one 
short century, were in a fair way of witnessing a 
permanent Indian civilization. 

To say that all attempts at civilization must be- 
gin with a religion, true or false, is to say. in other 
words, that the brain and heart are the seats of lift 
and sense. Our Catholic missionaries, without an 
exception, began with the head and heart of the 
Indian. Catechetical instruction, by words, signs, 
writings, and pictures, was in every instance the 
first undertaking of the black robe. Baptism was 
not conferred but with great care and after long 
5 * 



54 CATHOLIC HISTOHY OF AMEBICA. 



probation : it was given to adults on, among other 
conditions, that of being immediately followed by 
matrimony — iliiis laying the sacred fonndations of 
tlie family institute. Penance supervised and con- 
ducted the moral progress of the baptized at regular 
intervals. Without this sacrament of revision and 
of reunion, it seems to be morally impossible that 
a pagan people could be confirme*d in their new 
Christianity or conducted steadily by its spirit. 
My first inference, then, is this — that the Catholic 
system and discipline was the best suited to convert 
the Indian nations. 

Xot only the spirir, but also the forms of our dis- 
cipline, appear to me indispensable to this end. 
Fervid extempore appeals from the altar were more 
likely to aftect a nation of orators than the cold 
and formal essays of the sectarian ministers. If 
oratory failed, the Indian could be taken by the 
eye : to which sense the pictures of saints, the lights 
upon the altar, the sacred vessels glistening like 
stars in the darkened chapel, all addressed them- 
selves. The eye is ever the sense most powerful in 
savages. Many tribes, though not all. were likewise 
fond of music. The Hurons delighted in music, the 
Ottawas did not ; the same difference existed be- 
tween the Algonquins and the Iroquois. Xow, those 
nations most partial to music were soonest converted 
and easiest confirmed. Whole Indian congrega- 
tions sung aloud the responses at certain parts of 
the mass ; and their hymns and dances in honor of 
the Blessed Virgin are mentioned by every mis- 



THE ABORIGINES AND MISSIONARIES. 



55 



sionary. The beating of the breast, the ringing of 
the bell, and the ascent of the incense, all had 
charms and attractions for these simple-hearted cat- 
echumens. I know that some writers pretend to 
condemn such display as inconsistent with the sim- 
plicity of the worship due to God from his crea- 
tures ; as if the incense the Almighty made was too 
precious for its Maker, or the gold he scattered 
through the earth too bright to adorn the temples 
of the Scatterer ! The same objection was made of 
old to Magdalen's precious ointment, and might be 
still more strongly made against the divine Archi- 
tect's plan, of which David was but the undertaker, 
and Solomon the builder. 

Within the mission, within the breast of the be- 
liever, the new life of civilization began ; but there 
it did not end. Every wigwam chapel gathered its 
colony ; the Catholic principle was fatal to the no- 
madic looseness of life ; the mission always matured 
into a village. The progress indeed was slow at 
first, as must be every progress from barbarism up- 
wards ; as was Roman, Gothic, Celtic, and Norman 
progress. But we have every right to assume, from 
what progress was made while the Catholic mission 
flourished, that both the individual and the family 
would have been reclaimed, and the new Indian 
society gradually developed, had time enough been 
granted. One of our statesmen, speaking of the re- 
mains of those missions, is induced to say that much 
was due to French courtesy and sobriety, " and much 
more, perhaps, to the influence of a religion which, 



56 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OP AMERICA. 



tliougli often calumniated, exercises a dominion over 
the minds of untutored savages far more powerful 
and far more salutary tlian has hitherto resulted 
from the influence of any other.'' * 

Every Catholic missionary set out with the reso- 
lution to learn the native language. At Quebec 
'and at New Orleans there were schools where In- 
dian languages were taught to Europeans. Father 
Chamnount wrote a Huron, Father Bruyas an Iro- 
quois, dictionary ; Father Gravier did likewise for 
the Illinois, Father White for the Susquehannas, 
and Father Easles for the Abnakis. These and 
other fathers translated into the several lan- 
guages of the nations among which they resided 
various catechisms, portions of Scripture, lives of 
Christ, and other elementary treatises. They were 
thus laying the broad foundations of a living Indian 
literature, which must in time have become a valu- 
able element in the work of aboriginal training. 
Except symbolic signs, these people had no charac- 
ter ; the missionaries alone labored to supply this 
void, in the manner most natural and most agreea- 
ble to men jealous of their race. While translating 
Catholic literature into Indian languages, they at 
the same tlDie collected not only the grammar of 
Indian tongues, but innumerable native traditions ; 
which collections, at this day, are the most valuable 
part of all we possess concerning the red race of 
America. Sad the Indian civilization gone on, 



* Hon. J. K. Paulding, Atlantic Souvenir for 1831. 



THE ABOBIGINES AND MISSIONAEIES. 



57 



how mucli more valuable ttouM it be to them to 
have the traditions of their fathers in the language 
of their fathers, than to be obliged wholly to trans- 
late their ideas into a foreign tongue ! 

As travellers and experimentalists, the services 
of our missionaries to Indian civilization are re- 
spectable. Thev were the first explorers of the 
northern lakes and rivers, and the first to descend 
the Mississippi and to ascend the Missouri. I can 
but indicate to you* their labors in that region. 

Undeterred by the fate of Brcebeuf and Lalle- 
mand, other missionaries made their way to Lake 
Huron ; and in 1665 one of them, Father AUouez. ex- 
plored Lake Superior in a canoe, and founded a mis- 
sion on its banks called St. Esprit. A mission also 
grew up at the Sault Ste. Marie, from which voyages 
and journeys of discovery were made in every di- 
rection. In 1673 Fathers Marquette and Dablon, 
of the Lake Superior mission, hearing of a great 
river to the west, made their way to Green Bay, as- 
cended the Fox Eiver, travelled by land to the Wis- 
consin, and, following its course, on the ITth of 
June discovered the Upper Mississippi, as De Soto 
one hundred and thirty years before had discovered 
the Lower Mississippi. The Missouri, the Ohio, the 
Arkansas, and the Illinois Rivers were also explored 
by Father Marquette, who has been called, and well 
deserves to be called, the father of the west."' 
The last hour of this good man^s life was in keeping 
with all the rest. Feeling that his hour was come, 
he built an altar of turf on the shores of Lake 



58 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA, 



Micliigan ; and after offering the holy sacrifice of 
the masSj he said to his Indian congregation, " Leave 
me alone for half an hour.'' They withdrew like 
obedient children, and, after the half hour elapsed, 
returned and found him dead before the altar, a 
-bc)lyjoy upon his face, his arms crossed upon his 
breast. Thus Futher Marquette departed to God 
from the depths of that wilderness which for the 
glory and increase of Christianity he was the first 
to traverse and describe. " The west,'' says Ban- 
croft, " will build his monument." It is to be hoped 
so, for the west's own honor. 

Every such exploration as Marquette's (and there 
were others of almost equal importance) was fol- 
lowed by a map and a memoir, describing the phys- 
ical geography of the country. Being, besides, men 
of some science, and quick observers, the missiona- 
ries made several useful discoveries, and introduced 
many improvements. They first made wine from 
the native grape, wax (for candles) from the wild 
laurel, and incense from the gum tree.^ They drew 
attention to the cotton plant and the mulberry tree 
of the Mississippi valley ; they introduced the 
sugar cane from their gardens in New Orleans ; they 
first planted the peach in Illinois ; and were the first 
to introduce wheat and the plough into the prairies. 
The aborigines had habitually planted their maize 
in holes made with a dibble ; but the Jesuits taught 
them better. If, as has been said, " a plough proper 



* Kip's Jesuits in America. 



THE ABORIGINES AND MISSIO^TARIES. 59 

in a field arable be tlie noblest escutcheon, then is 
it theirs ; if 

In ancient days the sacred plough employed 
The kings and awful fathers of mankind," 

a share of the same awe and honor belongs to the 
early Catholic missionaries. They pointed out the 
locality of many minerals ; they were the first to 
work the copper mines of Lake Superior for orna- 
*ments for the altars at the Sault ; and the first to ac- 
quaint New York of the existence of her own salt 
springs.^ 

About this latter discovery there is an anecdote 
worth repeating. When Father Simon la Moyne 
communicated the fact to his Dutch correspondent, 
Dominie Megapolensis, the cautious dominie, in lay- 
ing it before the classis of New Amsterdam/' ex- 
presses himself in great doubt " whether this infor- 
mation be true, or whether it he a Jesuit lie,''' It 
turned out to be quite true, as the annual revenues 
of New York State can testify. Of many another 
Jesuit discovery we may say with confidence that 
it was just as true as that there is salt at Syra- 
cuse. 

Dr. Kip, in his publication of Jesuit letters, seems 
to think the good immediate efl^ects of their missions 
(which he admits) were not very lasting. They 
were not, indeed, where the English had the power 
to counteract ; as when in this state, a little over a 



9 

* Shea's Discovery of the Mississippi Valley, p, 227. 



60 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMERICA. 



century ago, tliey executed Father Jolin Ury on a 
trumped-up charge of plotting with the negroes. 
But where that power was not absolute, as in Low- 
er Canada by treaty, or in the west from its dis- 
tance, the missions never wholly decayed. Accord- 
ing to a parliamentary paper of the session of 1831, 
there were ten thousand Christian Indians in Lower 
Canada : in the upper province there may be half 
as many ; on the Kennebec and in the lower British 
provinces, say five thousand Christian Indians : on 
Lake Superior Bishop Barraga counts five thousand ; 
in California, in 1833, Bacholot found twenty thou- 
sand under the Franciscan fathers : Father de Smet 
and his coadjutors count in the far west several 
thousands : in Mexico there are four millions of 
pure Indians and two millions of mixed race ; in 
all, north of the isthmus, there may be seven mil- 
lions of the pure or mixed descendants of the abo- 
rigines who are Catholic Christians and have learned 
from Catholicity the first lessons of civilization. It 
is to be regretted there are not many millions more ; 
but, all things considered, it is well there are so 
many.* 

I turn now to the Protestant attempts : and these 
are so few and simple that they will be easily told. 
The most respectable was the attempt made by the 
apostle Eliot/'^ as he is called, among the Massachu- 

* " WitHn the territory of the United States, in 1853, there were but 
one hundred and eighty thousand east of the Mississippi, and two 
hundred and twenty thoustnd west of it." — Report of Secretary of the 
Interior for 18-53. 



THE ABORIGINES AND MISSIONARIES. 61 

setts Indians about tlie year 1640, and from that 
time till liis death. I have no desire to deny his 
zeal, his learning, or his sincerity. All that is ne- 
cessary is to state the fact mentioned by his early bi- 
ographer, who tells ns he extended his labors from 
Boston even to Cape Cod.^^ He gathered several 
neophytes at Natick, and translated the Bible into 
the Narragansett tongue ; but by the time he had 
done, there were no Narragansetts to read it. The 
success of Brainerd at Stockbridge was not so short- 
lived ; but it also has passed away. When Father 
Rasles was on the Kennebec, the Eev. Richard Bax- 
ter settled in his neighborhood and opened an Indi- 
an free school there. On being invited to a discus- 
sion of doctrines he left, and did not again return 
to his mission. His discomfiture is told with 
natural com»placency by the veteran Jesuit, who 
spent thirty-seven years of his life in the wilderness, 
and laid down his mission only with his life. When, 
in 1703, Governor Dudley, of Boston, offered to re- 
build the church of the Abnakis burned by the Pu- 
ritans, on condition he was to send them a minister, 
the Indian deputy replied by a parallel,' in which he 
said, " When you first came hither you sa.w me a 
long time before the French governors ; but neither 
those who preceded you nor your ministers have 
spoken to me of prayer or the Great Spirit. You 
have seen my furs, my skins of the beaver and the elk, 
and it is about these only you have thought ; and 
much more to the same effect. On the contrary, he 
added, the French black robe hardly deigned to 
6 



62 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA, 



look at his furs/^ but spoke to him at once " of 
the Great Spirit, of paradise, of hell, and of the 
prayer/^ Equally acute was the answer of Red 
Jacket to the missionary who told the Senecas all 
his religion was in the Bible : ''Brother,'^ said he, 
you say all good is in the book ; it is well. Go 
back to your own people at Buffalo Creek; they 
have the good book ; when they become all good 
you can return to us, and we will hear you talk more 
of the Bible.'' Except their partial success among 
the remains of the Oneidas, I know no Methodist 
mission in the older states which can now show any 
considerable congregation. 

In the year of our Lord 1725, the celebrated 
Berkeley, Dean of Derry, pleaded the cause of the 
Indian race so forcibly, that, at the table of Pope 
the poet. Swift and others started up, exclaiming, 
" Let us go ! let us go ! '' They did not go, how- 
ever ; but Berkeley did. He sailed to the colonies 
in 1729, on the faith of a grant of twenty thousand 
pounds, with which he was to found an Indian col- 
lege in Bermuda. But the money was never paid 
over, the college never founded ; and Dr. Berkeley, 
after three years spent at Newport, returned to his 
learned friends and an Irish mitre, leaving the red 
race to Providence. This was, we believe, the only 
project ever submitted to the British government 
for aid to convert our Indians. Their treatment 
of Dean Berkeley, compared to the Spanish govern- 
ment's uniform attention to Las Casas, or the French 
government's aid to the Canadian misssionaries, 



THE ABORIGINES AKD MISSIONARIES, 63 



does deep dishonor to England. A day will come 
when history will make her feel it. 

In comparatively recent times, especially by the 
Methodist sect, missionaries have gone among the 
Indians with occasional success ; but no results like 
Caugawauga, St. Regis, the Sault, or the Oregon 
missions have at any time been attained by any 
of the sects. Few or none — I do not know one — 
of the sectarian missionaries died in the American 
forest. In this there is a marked difference between 
them and the Catholics, who almost always died in 
harness. It is quite common to meet obituaries of 
Jesuits who had spent from thirty to fifty years in 
the wilderness, and died at patriarchal ages, in the 
midst of their neophytes. Father Chamnount, al- 
ready mentioned, lived over fifty years among the 
Hurons ; Bishop Las Casas, over sixty among the 
various tribes of Central America and New Spain ; 
Williamson, in his History of Maine, speaks of " Mr. 
Manach, a French priest, who had lived among the 
Micmacs forty years or more prior to 1763 ; Fa- 
ther Rasles had spent some thirty-five years with his 
beloved Abnakis.* Sometimes members of the same 
family have lived for years without once meeting, as 

* It is to be wished that the interesting missions in Maine, both by 
the fathers last mentioned and by P. P. Vincent, and Jaques Bigot and 
M. Thury, were made the subject of detailed inquiry. In no part of 
the new world do the Jesuits appear to more advantage. 

[After the above note was written, we learned with sincere pleasure 
that Mr. John Gilmary Shea had a work in the press, in which the 
American missions — including, of course, those of Maine — wiU be 
treated of very fully«] 



64 CATHOLIC HISTORY OP AMERICA. 



the three Lallemands, the two Mambres, the two Bi- 
gots, and the two Le Moynes. Many a noble house in 
Europe might almost have forgotten that it had 
such sons, when some of those edifying letters/' 
now so precious to our history, would find their way 
to the parental roof. The very names of the wri- 
ters would then sound strangely in the homes of 
their fathers, and a new generation would ask, in 
wonder, the date of their departure from France or 
Spain. 

Let me not be thought to overstate the results o'f 
the Catholic missions among the red men. I argue 
only that systematic attempts were made. I full 
well know that barbarian life will not yield up its 
habits in one, nor two, nor three generations. I 
know, also, there were many special impediments in 
the way of the first apostles to the Americans. 
France and Spain were unfortunately at war the 
greater part of the period I have been describing. 
They were not only at war with each other, but at 
feud with Rome. During the entire reign of Louis 
XIV. no French bishop visited the chair of Peter. 
Under the attractive or repulsive action of Protes- 
tantism, Catholic states were becoming less Catho- 
lic up to the hour of the French revolution. More- 
over, on this continent, the captains of those powers 
and of England did not hesitate to employ the In- 
dian in war on his own conditions. The expulsion 
of the French from Canada in 1760, the suppression 
of the Jesuits in France in 1763, and their Roman 
suppression ten years later, were so many obstacles 



THE ABORIGINES AXD MISSIONARIES. 



65 



to a systematic and established success at tlie 
north.* But a great and generous beginning had 
been made from Canada to Mexico. A Protestant 
tourist in Canada, speaking of the Jesuits before 
the suppression, says, They do not care to become 
preachers to a congregation in the town or country, 
but leave those places, together with the emoluments 
arising from them, to the (secular) priests. All 
their business here is to convert the heathen : and 
vrith that view their missionaries are scattered over 
every part of the country. Xear every town and 
village peopled by converted Indians are one or two 
Jesuits, who take great care that they may not re- 
turn to paganism, but live as Christians ought to 
do.^'t "Simply to call these people religious,'' 
says Mr. Irving of certain Rocky Mountain Indi- 
ans, " would convey but a faint idea of the deep 
hue of piety and devotion which pervades the whole 
of their conduct. They are more like a nation of 
saints than a horde of savages. t Speaking of 
those of New Spain, Baron Yon Humboldt says, 
" The Indians of the missions have the manners of 
our peasants.'^ § Even when the missions were no 
longer supplied with priests, the relics and tradi- 

* The Bishop of Quebec employed Priests of the Mission to supply 
the place of the Jesuits, by whom the good light Vv-as still kept burn- 
ing at Tadousac, Lorette, Becaucourt, St. Francois, Sault St. Louis, 
&c. The return of the black robes vras, however, a godsend to the 
poor natives, who have ever since been chiefiy attended by them. 

t See Appendix No. V. for other testimony to the same effect. 

X Irving's Adventures of Bonneville. 

§ Humboldt's Personal Narrative, vol. iii. p. 235. 

6 * 



66 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



tions of Christianity were fonclly clierished. Jolin 
"Wesley found the doctrine of the Trinity of the 
Godhead among the ChicasaTrs ; and three several 
times tribes from Oregon despatched messengers to 
St. Louis,, to ask their American father to provide 
them with black robes.'' In some tribes this 
spirit seems to have been imperishable ; others, 
when the clergy were no longer with them, returned 
to their idols — a thing hardly to be wondered at. 

I have thus maintained my second proposition. 
I have shown you that the greatest names of mod- 
ern Catholicity are bound up in the story of the In- 
dian race. I have mentioned the missions of the 
Jesuits, Dominicans, Carthusians, Franciscans, Rec- 
oUets, and Vincentians. I might almost assert that 
every Catholic order is repi'esented in the history 
of this continent. Why be at war with history? 
The Jesuits are there, in the outer gate of all our 
chronicles. Speak them civilly as you pass on. 
For us, cold compliments are not enough. Our 
blood warms at witnessing their heroic virtue, and 
we are compelled to raise our voices in evidence of 
our homage. They were the first to put the forest 
brambles by ; they were the first to cross the thresh- 
olds of the wigwams of every native tribe ; they 
first planted the cross in the wilderness, and shed 
their blood cheerfully at its base. Shall we not 
study their lives and recall their words ? Shall we 
not figure them on canvas and carve them in mar- 
ble? Shall we not sing the song of their triumph, 
and teach it to our children^s children, until the re- 



THE ABOEIGIXES AXD MISSI0XAKIE3. 



67 



motest generation ? We have never had cause to 
be ashamed of them ; and God grant they may have 
none to be ashamed of ns. I ask again of those 
not with ns, Why be at war with history ? The 
Jesuit is in the gate, and you can no more enter the 
first chapter of your own chronicles without meeting 
him there than you can enter Quebec in time of war 
without giving the sentry the countersign. 



IV.- THE CATHOLICS AND THE REVOLUTION 



We are now to speak of the revolution which 
took place in British America, and of how far Cath- 
olic blood, talent, and treasure contributed to the 
establishment of the republic. A previous, neces- 
sary question is, the condition of the colonies out 
of which the republic was erected. 

French colonies were established at Quebec in 
1608, on the Penobscot in 1631, at " the Sault and 
at Kaskaskia about 1670, and at New Orleans so 
late as 1717. The Spanish settlement of St. Augus- 
tine, in Florida, dates from 1565, and makes that 
town the oldest in our republic. In the year 1605, 
English Episcopalians settled at Jamestown ; in 
1620, the Puritans landed at Plymouth ; in 1682, 
the Quakers founded Philadelphia ; in 1661, the 
Huguenots were settled in Carolina ; in 1729, the 
Irish Presbyterians settled on the Merrimac ; and 
in 1732, Oglethorpe emigrated to Georgia. The 
" Dutch Eeformed sect had settled on the Hudson 
in 1610, and English and Irish Catholics on the 
Chesapeake in 1634. 

We have thus side by side, not only New France 
and New England, New Amsterdam and New Spain, 

(68) 



THE CATHOLICS AND THE REYOLUTION. 69 



but the Protestant and Catholic religions, repre- 
sented in contemporaneous colonies, three thousand 
miles removed from the first sees and schools of 
both religions. The relative power of these col- 
onies, and the gradual spread of British sover- 
eignty over all the territory destined to form the 
first United States, raised that previous question of 
which I have just spoken. 

The North American colonies of France and 
Spain were not at any time largely supplied with 
emigrants from the parent countries. At the first 
capitulation of Quebec, a century after its settle- 
ment, two ships were considered enough to 
transport its inhabitants out of Canada. Till this 
day the Americans of Spanish origin, north of the 
isthmus, (including Cuba,) do not number above 
four millions. In Louisiana, the descendants of its 
founders did not exceed thirty thousand at the be- 
ginning of the present century. The colony of 
Maryland had a majority of Catholics down to the 
English revolution of 1688 ; but as the total did not 
exceed then twenty-five thousand,^ the majority 
could not amount to a very large number. The 
Protestant colonies had increased in numbers more 
rapidly. At Cromv^ell^s death the New England 
colonies contained fifty thousand inhabitants, and 
Virginia as many more. How shall we account for 
this difference ? Was England, in the seventeenth 

* In 1671 the popnlation was sixteen thousand. Governor Sharpe, 
in a letter, written in 17o8, to the then Lord Baltimore, states that the 
Catholics were in a majority down to the year 1638. 



TO 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMERICA. 



ceritiiry. more crowded or more enterprising than 
France and Spain ? Or is h as mncli the nature of 
sects to feel unsettled, to wander away, to seek new 
homes, as it is the nature of the church to satisfy 
the soul, to check worldly amlhtion. to render the 
poor patient in the endurance of their lot ? Explain 
it as you will, the fact remains, that the Catholics 
of Europe were never as eager to emigrate to Amer- 
ica as the sectarians were. 

Those Catholics who settled in Maryland were 
chiefly of the better classes in England and Ire- 
land : educated young men, in search of employ- 
ments : heads of families, in search of cheaper sub- 
sistence : men. proud of their ancient faith, who 
preferred an altar in the desert to a coronet at 
court : professional or trading men. bound by in- 
terest and sympathy to these better classes. They 
composed a wise and select community worthy of 
their rich inheritance. One of their earliest legis- 
lative acts was " the toleration act of 1649,*' the 
first ordinance of its kind known in America, 
vrhich granted freedom of worship " to all who be- 
lieved in Jesus Christ." They waged no extermi- 
nating wars with the Indians : they had no strong 
towns ; but. scattered along the coasts and river 
courses, they cultivated their farms, shipped their 
superfluities, bought, and sold, and built, until in 
lialf a century they had increased their numbers a 
thousand fold. 

There was another class of Catholics scattered 
through the colonies from the first — the Irish polit- 



THE CATHOLICS AND THE REVOLUTIOX. 



71 



ical offenders, banislied after the unsuccessful rising 
of 1641 and tlie subsequent Protestant revolu- 
tion. The statistics of this class it is hopeless to 
seek. From the state papers of Cromweirs time, 
there is reason to set them at from fifty to one hun- 
dred thousand souls shipped to the West Indies or 
the continent.* Barbadoes and Jamaica had, per- 
haps, the larger part.- Of the whole, two thirds must 
have been women and boys, the men capable of 
bearing arms, having been pressed into the Protect- 
or's fleet, or sent to recruit the ranks of Austria, 
or picked up by recruiting agents from other Eu- 
ropean states. 

In estimating exiles of this class as an element 
of our original population, we must allow for the 
extraordinary mortality which inevitably befell 
them. In 1625 we hear that of eighteen hundred 
convicts shipped to Virginia within the six previous 
years, at a cost of fifteen thousand pounds, only one 
Aa/f remained alive. t In Barbadoes and Jamaica 
the exiled Irish wasted away, leaving only a scanty 
posterity in either of those islands.! Of the un- 

* The republican commissioners " having recommended, A. D. 
1652, " that Irishwomen be sold to merchants and transported to Vir- 
ginia, New England, Jamaica, or other countries," immense numbers 
were so sent. Sir William Petty mentions six thousand women and 
boys sent to the West Indian islands alone. Henry Cromwell's Irish 
Correspondence contains many details of this undertaking ; a contempo- 
rary manuscript, in the late Dr. Lingard's possession, gave the total at 
sixty thousand souls ; Bruodin, a contemporary, sets it at one hundred 
thousand. 

t Stith's History of Virginia, p. 167- 

X Among the gentlemen who formed the council of the governor of 



72 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



happy females transported to New England, many 
descendants must remain ; many, perhaps, who hold 
their heads high, and do not know that their moth- 
ers' miilk was drawn from that much-enduring race 
of Celtic islanders. 

The English revolution of 1688 was a disastrous 
event for the Catholic minority in British America. 
Maryland had enjoyed freedom of worship for half 
a century ; New York, and the British settlement 
in Maine, — the ducal province of Sagadahock/' 
as it was called, — had recently been opened to 
Catholics by the wisdom of Governor Dougan, him- 
self a Catholic. William Penn, who owed so much 
to James II., could not refuse to tolerate his pa- 
tron's creed in Pennsylvania. But this fair prospect 
was suddenly overclouded. The Prince of Orange 
landed in England, seized the crown, defeated his 
father-in-law's forces in Ireland, and carried out 
what is commonly called the glorious revolution 
of 1688." All the colonies felt the reaction. Leis- 
ler seized New York under the rallying cry of No 
Popery '^ and " Down with the Jesuits." The colo- 
nies, like Massachusetts and Virginia, which had 
somewhat relaxed the penal code, now increased its 
penalties. The new charters of William and Mary 
allowed liberty of conscience to all Christians 
except Papists ; " * and how savagely these laws 

Barbadoes, in 1767, I find the names of Patrick Lynch, Benjamin 
Malony, and one or two others of Irish origin. 

* Acadia, the French Nova Scotia, had been peopled for nearly a 
century by a simple, pious, pastoral race, when, in 1713, Louis XIY., 
by the treaty of Utrecht, ceded their country to Queen Anne. 



THE CATHOLICS AXD THE REYOLUTIOX. 73 



could be enforced may be seen in the melancholy 
story of the expukion cf the Acadians, 

A fate hardly less cruel befell the Catholics of 
Maryland. The founder of that colony, in whom 
its proprietorship had been Tested by James I., 
without condition, though well knowing his Catho- 
licity, had voluntarily thrown it open " to all who 
believed in Jesus Christ.'* He had even drafted 
oaths, binding his deputies and their council not to 
interfere with any man^s conscience. The Episco- 
palian, excluded fi^om isevv" England, had a home in 
Maryland and a seat in its assemibly : the Puritan, 
driven from Yirginia, sat at the same council board 
with the Episcopalian.* This constitution worked 

* "It is certainly very honorable to the liberality and public spirit 
of THE PROPRIETARY that he should have introduced into his funda- 
mental policy the doctrine of general toleration and equality among 
Christian sects, (for he does not appear to have gone further,) and 
have thus given the earliest example of a legislator inviting his sub- 
jects to the free indulgence of religious opinion. This was anterior 
to the settlement of Rhode Island, and therefore merits the enviable 
rank of being the frst recognition a.mong the colonists of the glorious 
and indefeasible rights of conscience." — Story's Com, on Constitution^ 
book i. ch. ix. sec. 106. 

" Calvert deserves to be ranked among the most wise and benevo- 
lent lawgivers of all ages. He was the first in the history of the 
Christian world to seek for religious security and peace by the practice 
of justice, and not by the exercise of power ; to plan the establish- 
ment of popular institutions ^ith the enjoyment of liberty of con- 
science ; to advance the career of civilization b}- recognizing the right- 
ful equality of all Christian sects. The asylum of Papists v/as the 
spot where, in a remote corner of the world, on the banks of rivers 
which as yet had hardly been explored, the mild forbearance of a pro- 
prietary adopted religious freedom as the basis of the state." — Ban- 
croft, vol. i. p. 244. For some account of the rise and progress of re- 
ligious toleration in the colonies and states, see Appendix No. VI. 
>^ 
1 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMERICA. 



well until the English revolution had its proscriptiye 
parody in all the provinces. A rising of the Protes- 
tant portion of the colony anticipated an order from 
Lord Baltimore in England to acknowledge the 
new sovereigns. Those who originated the rising 
called a convention, and sent an address to King 
William, full of accusations of Lord Baltimore, and 
praying him to send them a royal governor. A royal 
governor was sent ; and, in 1692, an assembly con- 
vened by this governor established the church of 
England as the legal religion of the province, as- 
sessed the counties for church rates and ministers' 
money, and declared Catholics incapable of hold- 
ing office. In this and the next reign severer penal- 
ties were inflicted ; and, that they might not increase 
from without, laws forbidding Catholics to emigrate 
to the colony were periodically reenacted.* In no 
part of British America, while it remained British, 

* In 1704 an act entitled An Act to prevent the Growth, of Popery 
•within this Proyince " passed. 

In 1707 another act was passed, suspending some of its provisions 
until her majesty's pleasure was signified therein. 

And in 1718 the act of the Parliament of Great Britain, passed in 
the eleventh and twelfth years of W^illiam III., entitled " An Act for 
the further preventing the Growth of Popery," was declared by act 
of general assembly of the province to be in force in all its provisions 
in the province. 

Sec. 1 provides a reward of onp hundred pounds to any one who 
shall ** apprehend and take'^ a Popish bishop, priest, or Jesuit, and 
prosecute him until convicted of saying mass, or of exercising any 
other part of the office or function of a Popish bishop or priest." 

Sec. 3 indicts perpetual imprisonment on any Popish bishop, priest, 
or Jesuit that shall say mass or exercise any function proper to such 
bishop, priest, or Jesuit ; or on any person professing the CathoUp 
religion who shall keep school, or educate, or govern, or board any 
youth. 



THE CATHOLICS AND THE REVOLUTION. 75 

need we expect to find any better treatment for 
Catholics. Neither can we suppose those who did 
remain were of any account in the great mass of 
France and England, of which this continent was 
partly the spoil, and often the theatre, from the 
reign of William III. to that of George III. Dur- 
ing the greater part of that interval the two pow- 
ers were at war by sea and land ; and the names 
of Louisburg, Quebec, Tioonderoga, Fort William 
Henry, and Fort du Quesne are the popular remem- 
brancers in America of their famous struggle for 
supremacy. When, at the peace of Paris, (1763,) 
the French gave up Canada to England, it might 
reasonably enough have been inferred that the 
hopes of Catholicity in North America were ex- 
tinguished. The old colonies had continued un- 
changeable in their exclusiveness. The governor 
and council of Pennsylvania had prohibited Cath- 
olic worship in 1734 and 1736 ; in 1740, Georgia 
had prohibited Catholics settling within her bor- 
ders ; in 1746, Father John Ury was executed in 
New York for the pretended negro plot to burn 
the city, the more telling charge being mixed up 
with it, that he was a Catholic priest. Under such 

Sec. 4. That if any Papist youth shaU not, within six months after 
he attains his majority, take certain oaths prescribed, (oaths incon- 
sistent with the faith of Romanists,) he shall be incapable of taking 
lands by descent, and his next of kin being a Protestant, shall suc- 
ceed to them ; that any person professing the Roman Catholic faith 
shall be incompetent to purchase lands. 

Sec. 6. Any person sending his child abroad to be educated in the 
Homish faith should forfeit one hundred pounds. 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMERICA, 



a conjunction of disaster?, the prospects of tlie 
AmericLin ch;:r:': ]:^j^:eless : vet. at 

that verv h: h „^ ^ of tlie mem- 

bers of her nr- : h;:: .l aiv were already Lorn. Out 
of such profoiiiia daihiie-s the dawn was about to 
break, and the en?: :^' ^^ddd. had conspired against 
God and hi? Chd. . ;■ nna;:.^:d. 

Let a ader a moment, before opening this 

brio-hter v . c - act. tlie probable result of the lon^ 
interval of persecution we have described. In an 
old Catholic country like Ireland, it might have 
confirmed rather than conquered the faithful ; but 
here all vras new and untried. The colonies were 
a mere vicariate of the vicar apostolic of London, 
himself an untolerated character. Chv a_;a there 
were none ^ missionaries next t :' aa"\^ Liiile won- 
der if, even in Jiaryland. the C a a_ : : were counted 
but as one thirteenth of the whole people in 175S : or 
if in 1TS5. our a ^ ' ' ' all the known 

Catholics in th- ■j.,. L._.xa:_^ -Lates at only thirty 
thousand.* TVhat had become of the descendants 
of the old Catholic emigrants ? What could have 
become of whole generations, without baptism, 
without the catechism, and without the sacraments ? 
"When we meet such Protestcuit names as O'Briens 
and SuUivans at the east ; McKeans and McDon- 
oaghs on the Delaware ; Lynches, Rutledges, and 
Moores in the south, — it neeJs no prophet to tell us 
that there must be apostasy somewhere among them. 

* This was Bishop CarroU's calculation ; but we have always thought 
fifty thousand would be nearer the mark. 



THE CATHOLICS AXD THE EEVOLUTIOX. 



7T 



The popular discussions preparatory to the revo- 
Intion Trere indirectly seryiceable to the Catholic 
cause. Men began to be ashamed of bigotry when 
George III. personated it. As the project of re- 
sistance to his power became more definite, so did 
this other sentiment increase and grow strong. 
There were still some Catholics of mark in the col- 
onies ; it was desirable that Canada should be 
brought into the confederacy ; yery desirable that 
a French alliance could be brought about. In in- 
diyidual minds nobler sentiuients preyailed ; but 
with the mass of American Protestants, toleration 
was the child of state policy. In 1763 the cross of 
St. Mary's was raised in Philadelphia, and in 1770 
St. Peter's Church was opened in Baltimore. TThen 
the Continental Congress met in 1775, it pronounced 
for the broadest toleration, although there was not 
wanting a party who still cherished the worst spirit 
of the penal times. 

The Catholic colonists may be diyided at this 
period into three classes — the landed proprietors, 
like the Carroll family : the merchants, like the 
Moylans and Fitzsimonses of Philadelphia;! and 
the redemptioners,''^ or poor emigrants, whose 

* In 17.7-i, at the daTm of tlie revolution, there vrere but sixteen 
missionaries in Mary Land and Pennsylvania — all Jesnits. The " chap- 
els " had been all in private houses, as in England, until the public 
opening of the churches mentioned in the text. 

t In the famous Philadelphia contribution, to supply the camp at 
Talley Forge, 1 finct the names of Delany and Shea for one thousand 
pounds each, John Mease for four thousand pounds, and James Mease 
for five thousand pounds. Thev were Catholic merchants. 



78 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



services were sold for a term of years, to pay for 
their passage out. 

If we are to judge by proper names, the rank and 
file of the continental army was largely recruited 
from the redemptioners.^ As so many of them in- 
habited the seaports, the navy was also their debtor, 
the more so that some of the first commanders were 
themselves Irish Catholics. The first sea fight of 
the war (what Mr. Fennimore Cooper calls the 
Lexington of the seas was fought under a Catho- 
lic commander. I allude to the affair of May 11, 
1775, in Machias Bay, where Jeremiah O'Brien and 
his brothers captured the British store ships Mar- 
garetta and Tapnaquish. A better known instance 
is that of the first commodore of the United States, 
John Barry, " who died at the head of the service 
in 1803. He was born on the sea shore of Wexford 
county, in Ireland, in 1745 ; in April, 1776, he was 
commissioned by Congress. With his boats in the 
Delaware, as well as by the capture of the Edward, 
the Atalanta, and Trespassa at sea, and his disci- 
plinary efforts, he won the proud title of " father 
of the American navy.'' With him Dale, Decatur, 
Murray, and Stewart served their apprenticeship of 
glory. Among his men, tradition counts a large 
number who were natives of the same island with 
their commander. 

In the annals of war, only the chiefs can be dis- 

* For example, in the list of the Bedford (N. H.) company at Bun- 
ker's Hill we find the names O'Neil, O'Fling, Murphy, Moore, Sulli- 
van, Calahan, &c. 



THE CATHOLICS AXD THE REVOLUTION. 79 



tinguished. Of tlie officers of tlie army let me spe- 
cially mention one — General Stephen Moylan. of 
Pennsylvania. Steplien Moylan was a native of 
Cork, and brother to the Roman Catholic bishop of 
that diocese. At Cambridge he Vy'as commissary 
general and aid-de-camp to Washington ; afterwards 
he was transferred to command the dragoons, in 
which position he was in every important engage- 
ment during the war. VTherever you find Anthony 
Wayne, you find Stephen Moylan — at Stony Point, 
at Bergen Xeck. on the Delaware, and at Savannah. 
After the surrender of Yorktown, " the remnant of 
Moylan's dragoons returned to their homes. 

Speaking of the opposition made in the first Con- 
gress to the claims of Catholics, the biographer of 
General Eeed remarks, And this was at a time 
when Colonel Moylan and others of the most meri- 
torious officers of the army were Roman Catholics ; " 
at a time also, it may be added, when the largest 
proprietor in that Congress, Charles Carroll, of 
Carrollton, had pledged to the declaration of inde- 
pendence his life and fortune, and when his col- 
league, William Paca, an Italian Catholic by de- 
scent, had been found equally zealous in the common 
cause. The important part borne by the Carroll 
family in the revolution was not confined altogeth- 
er to the signer.'^ Daniel Carroll, his cousin, was 
one of the most strenuous advocates of independence. 
His name stands as one of the authors of the federal 
constitution : on what was once his farm, by the Po- 
tomac, the national Capitol now stands. The broth- 



80 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OP AMERICA. 



er of this gentleman, the Eev. John Carroll, of the 
order of Jesuits, afterwards first Bishop of Balti- 
more, was employed on a delicate diplomatic mission 
by the first Congress. In the winter of 1775, Wash- 
ington having advised an invasion of Canada, the 
army, in two divisions, marched into that province, 
'gained some successes, were repulsed at Quebec, and 
wintered at Montreal, The following spring Con- 
gress resolved on sending a diplomatic embassy to 
the Canadians, composed of Dr. Franklin, Mr. 
Chase, Charles Carroll, and the Eev. John CarrolL 
They reached Montreal by the 1st of May, but ef- 
fected little, their mission being mainly defeated by 
the anti-Catholic conduct of certain American ofii- 
cers and the party in Congress already alluded to. 

In his instructions to Schuyler, General Yv^ashing- 
ton had wisely pointed out that the province could 
only be secured by laying hold of the afiections of 
the people and engaging them heartily in the com- 
mon cause." * In the same spirit, Montgomery, who 
replaced Schuyler, on entering Canada in November, 
1775, obtained peaceable possession of Montreal 

after engaging to allow the Canadians their own 
laws, the f ree exercise of their religion, and the privi- 
lege of governing themselves." After Montgom- 
ery's death, Chief Justice Marshall observes that 

the priests were very injudiciously neglected," 
and that "even General Arnold was disposed to 
think himaself in the company of our enemy."! 

* MarshaU's Life of Washington, vol. i. p. 49. 
t Ibid., p. 60. 



THE CATHOLICS AXD THE EEVOLUTIOX, 81 



Before this cliaiige. the same aiitliority adds that 
the Canadians " gave essential aid to the Americans 
and facilitated their march through that province.'' * 
A still worse blunder vras committed by Congress 
in its "Address to the People of Great Britain,'^ 
wherein it stigmatized Lord North for establishing 
in Canada a religion which had deluged their isl- 
and in blood, and diffused impiety, bigotry, perse- 
cution, murder, and reoellion through every part of 
the world.''' This precious piece of rhetoric was 
speedily translated and diffused among the Canadi- 
ans by British agents, and not less than the untimely 
death of Montgomery prevented them from being 
drawn into the general confederacy of the colonies. 

At another point of danger the friendly influence 
of Canadian Catholics was hardly less desirable. 
In following the warlike movements along the At- 
lantic coast, the eye of the student must sometimes 
be lifted to glance westward towards the line of the 
lakes and across the Indian country on the Wabash 
and Mississippi. It will be arrested for a moment 
at the old Canadian posts, Tincennes and Kaskas- 
kia. There we find Father Gibault, vicar general 
of the Bishop of Quebec, blessing the arms of French 
volunteers in the American cause, administering the 
oath of allegiance to the Congress, in his own church, 
and enlisting the Christian Indians upon the same 
side. There is no doubt," says the Bishop of Lou- 
isville, that the efforts of this good priest saved 

* MarshaU's Life of Washington, vol. i. p. 50. 



82 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMEEICA, 



the effusion of much blood, and facilitated our con- 
quests in the north-west/' ^ The invariable friend- 
ship of the first American governors of that region^ 
from George Rogers Clarke to Lewis Cass, for our 
missionaries, is a proof that their public services 
were considered deserving of courteous acknowl- 
edgment — the only recompense they ever accepted. 

Yet it is certain that in the first years of the con- 
test the old colonial bigotry prevailed in nearly all 
its force. In March, 1777^ when the colony of Xew 
York met in convention at Kingston, on the Hud- 
son, to frame a new constitution, Mr. John Jay 
moved, in auiendment of the section granting ^' free 
toleration of religious profession and worship,*' to 
add, except to the professors of the religion of the 
church of Eome,'' adding the usual tirade about 

the dangerous and damnable doctrines '' of absolu* 
tion from sin and from allegiance to the state. A 
long debate took place on this motion, which was 
finally lost by nineteen nays to eleven yeas. A sub= 
stitute motion of Mr. Morris was carried by the 
same numbers, in these words : Provided that 
the liberty of conscience hereby granted shall not 
be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, 
or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or 
safety of the state. f But a previous proviso, re- 

* Dr. Spalding's Life of Bishop Flaget, p. 43, where Billon's History 
of Indiana, vol. i., is quoted as authority for the patriotic efforts of 
Father Gibault. 

t Bishop Bayley's History of the Church in New York ; Appendix 
No. IIL 



THE CATHOLICS AKD THE ESY0LUTI02s\ 83 



qniring applicants for naturalization to abjure and 
renounce ail allegiance and subjection to ail and 
every foreign king, priest, potentate, and state, in 
all matters ecclesiastical and civil, had been in- 
grafted in the state constitution, and remained part 
of it till repealed by the " Act concerning Oaths, 
passed in 1801. The first important advance in 
toleration was, in truth, directly consequent on the 
French alliance of 1778. When D^Estaing's fleet en- 
tered Newport Harbor, Rhode Island abolished its 
penal laws. Every French ship and regiment had 
its chaplain, and in many states they were the first 
who ofi'ered the holy sacrifice since the times of the 
Indian missionaries. In New York the Abbe La 
Motte, in Newport the Abbe Robin, and in Boston 
the Abbe La Poitre, were the first Catholic priests 
the revolutionary generation had seen. As the 
good understanding between the tvfo countries con- 
tinued, so did the spirit of toleration increase. 
During the last years of the war, the Catholics of 
Boston were allowed the use of a school house in 
School Street, while those of New York assembled 
above a carpenter^s shop in Barclay Street. After 
the war, the Rev. Charles Whelan, an Irish Francis- 
can, previously a chaplain in the French fleet, set- 
tled at New York, and was the first who gathered 
together a permanent congregation in that city. 

Having mentioned the colonial Catholics who 
took a leading part in the revolution, it would be 
unpardonable to overlook their foreign-born co- 
religionists who fought on the same side. Whatever 



84 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA, 



may have been the practice of the Frenchmen of 
that age, they belonged to a Catholic nation, and 
wore the uniform of a prince whose pride was to 
be called ^' the eldest son of the church/^ We can- 
not forget that the proud names, De Montmorenci, 
De Lausun, De Ghastelleaux, De Lafayette, dignify 
not only the muster roll of the revolution, but also 
the registry of our church ; neither can we forget 
that they were accompanied in arms by the Counts 
Dillon, McMahon, and Roche-Fermoy, descendants 
of Irish Catholic fugitives for conscience' sake, 
long settled in France ; ^ nor that the orthodox 
kingdom of Poland was represented here by her 
illustrious soldier, Thaddeus Kosciusko. On the 
other side, what do we see ? The leading Protes- 
tant power of the world sending out army after 
army to crush your rising liberties. This a Protes- 
tant revolution ! Truly it was, just so far as Prot- 
estant oppression and Protestant hostility could 
give it that cha>racter. 

Catholic France supplied to the cause of the 
American revolution ten thousand men, and three 
hundred millions of dollars. All the military op- 
erations of the last three years of the war depend- 
ed as much on these resources as on the continental 
army. Their burden to France we can estimate ; 
their value to America we can conjecture. In the 
operations on Rhode Island, Long Island, and the 

* I am informed, by a friend learned in these matters, that the whole 
Irish brigade in the service of France volunteered for the Americau 
service, but were not sent out, war not being then declared. 



THE CATHOLICS AND THE REVOLUTION. 85 

Delaware, the French fleet cooperated with the 
American army. Cornwallis, once hemmed in be- 
tween the two forces, was com.pelled to capitulate. 
The double rank of officers, one French, the other 
American, between whom he marched out of York- 
town, is a true representation of the last cam- 
paigns of the war. A most important arm of 
the service was particularly indebted to the French 
alliance ; that is, the engineers and artillery. 
Whoever will compare the Canada campaign, which 
^' failed for want of engineers," to the Jersey cam- 
paigns, in which the French officers rendered such 
service," will see the value of this accession. To 
crown all, there was the moral influence of hav- 
ing a first-rate power embarked in an undecided 
cause, of having a European sovereign of the high- 
est rank as the ally of obscure colonies, as yet 
unknown, even by name, to the political world. 
This was a great gain ; and it was derived from a 
Catholic quarter. 

Let me be fairly understood. I do not say that 
Catholics, native or foreign, made the revolution. 
I did not undertake to prove that. I contend only 
that a large share of Catholic blood, talent, and 
treasure was contributed to your independence. 
This has been proved, and more than this ; for it is 
clear from the facts cited that the resident Catholics 
owed the colonies no obligation before 1775 ; that, 
on the contrary, the sects had invariably persecuted 
them from the reign of William III. to the teign 
8 



86 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



of George III. ; that finally it was the French alli- 
ance, as much as a sense of justice in the leading 
men, which at length insured equal rights to our 
predecessors. These being the circumstances, how 
magnanimous was the conduct of the Catholic col- 
onists ! how entirely superior to all selfishness ! 
They took thought only of the common cause; 
they turned their eyes away from their own wrongs^ 
to fix and fasten them on the wrongs of their 
country. Such patriotism as they displayed, if not 
proportionate in amount to that of the majority of 
the revolutionists, was at least equal in its disinter- 
estedness to either Puritan or Virginian heroism. 
May I add the testimony of the highest authority 
on this subject ? When Washington was first presi- 
dent, he used these words in reply to the ^'Address 
of the Eoman Catholics of the United States "I 
presume that your fellow-citizens will not forget 
the patriotic part which you took in the accom- 
plishment of their revolution and the establishment 
of their government, or the important assistance 
they received from a nation in which the Roman 
Catholic faith is professed/^ * 

This testimony who shall gainsay ? These are 
the words of a man who never uttered a falsehood ; 
of a patriot the most jealous of making distinctions 
between citizens ; of a witness who had the best 
opportunity of judging, and who possessed the best 



* For the Address and Keply, see Appendix 'No, VI. 



THE CATHOLICS AXD THE EEYOLUTIOX. 87 



judgment. I could call other witnesses ; but "Wash- 
ington's testimony will be admittedi. as enough. It 
can stand alone. 

I have already sho^vn. on the authority of Chief 
Justice Marshall, ihat it is probable Canada might 
have been one of the original states of the Union but 
for the impolicy of General Arnold and the bigotry 
of a portion of the iirst Congress. Hovr much we 
have lost or gained by thai error is a mere matter 
of speculation, and vre are dealing not vrith opin- 
ions, but vrith facts, I have called attention to 
Marshall's testimony, showing vrhat he calls "the 
favorable disposition of the • Canadians " towards 
the common cause, and to account for the fact 
why a province pecudiarly Catholic was not brought 
into the confederacy. The truth is. the old thir- 
teen'" were not very anxious to have her, and 
the Canadians were not slow in discovering their 
aversion. 

On this last proposition I have only to add, that 
the Catholic colonists were no less zealous for the 
establishment of the federal constitution than they 
had been for the expulsion of the English. They 
desired ujiity not less than liberty ; and desiring it 
ardently, they wrought for it untiringly. Among 
the names with. which the constitution was pro- 
mulgated, few had a m.ore respectable share in its 
preparation than Thomas Fitzsimon. of Pennsyl- 
vania, and Daniel Carroll, of Maryland, a native 
and a naturalized Catholic. Mr. Fitzsimon, like 



88 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



most men of liis religion in "VTasMngton's time, was 
a federalist, and so adverse to what were called 
French principles'' that he refused to be made ac- 
quainted with some of the Irish democrats who 
emigrated to this country after 1798. He was a 
merchant of Philadelphia, a skilful financier, and 
one of the principal authors of our commercial 
legislation. In the useful nature of his public ser- 
vices his name ranks with Robert Morris and 
Jonathan Goodhue, and as such is entitled to be 
mentioned with respect bv our own generation. 

We have thus far borne out the argument from 
the discovery of Columbus to the presidency of 
Washington. Here I might well dismiss the sub- 
ject, having proved all I undertook to prove, 
namely : — 

First. — That the discovery and exploration of 
America were Catholic enterprises, undertaken by 
Catholics with Catholic motives, and carried out 
by Catholic cooperation. 

Secoxd. — That the only systematic attempts to 
civilize and Christianize the aborigines were made 
by Catholic missionaries. 

Third. — That the independence of the United 
States was, in a great degree, established by Catho- 
lic blood, talent, and treasure. 

But it is necessary for the completeness of the 
subject, though not for further proof of these prop- 
ositions, to trace the growth of the church within 
the republic. The history of seventy years, rapidly 



THE CATHOLICS AXD THE KEYOLUTIOX. 89 

rehearsed, Trill give us ample cause for encourage- 
ment ; and Trhen "wo c=ompare the prospects of our 
faith to-day with what they were a century ago, we 
will, I think, find new reasons to be thankful for the 
impartial guaranties of that admirable constitution 
under which it is cur happiness to live. 



V.-THE CHURCH IX THE REPUBLIC. 



As one returning to his o^vn country observes 
"witli freedom every side of the land, until, drawing 
near his birthplace, he becomes suddenly silent, so 
might we, if there were no public obligation to the 
contrary, prefer to avoid speaking on the growth 
of the church in this republic. But even a summa- 
ry like the present, which would stop at the era of 
our national constitution, must leave much to sur- 
mise, and therefore something to censure. I enter- 
tain, I trust, due reverence for the pious dead, 
whether departed yesterday or a thousand years 
ago — a sentiment which teaches me to render to 
their virtues even more honor than I would to their 
persons if they still lived, but which also forbids me 
to offer chance-plucked poppies of panegyric on 
their graves. 

There is no subject on which Americans generally 
are apt to be more eloquent than the growth of 
their country. It is, indeed, provocative of such 
outbursts. The amplifying power of words in this 
case falls short ratlier than exceeds. We have no 
terms capable of expressing how much material 
progress has been made in less than a century. 

(90) 



THE CHURCH IN THE PcEPUBLIC. 



91 



Thirteen sovereign states converted into tliirty-tvro ; 
France and Spain removed from the continent : Eng- 
land tolerated ; savage nations exterminated or 
transplanted l3eyond the range of civilized life : a 
commerce created, which contends in every sea for 
the first rank : three millions become fonr and twen- 
ty ; long iron ways laid down from ocean to ocean ; 
these are the wonderful material conquests of this 
republic. It is not possible to exaggerate their 
greatness, except by attributing to them moral 
causes which had no share in their success. 

It was said of old. empire comes from the Xorth. 
On this continent it was necessarily so. Just as 
Europe was about to enter on the great wars of the 
French revolution, this country started into national 
life, with a hardy, intrepid, and, for colonies, a com- 
pact population of three millions ; while all the 
other white inhabitants north of the isthmus did not 
count, taken together, half as many. With double 
numbers, with the impetus of revolutionary success, 
with native institutions, the timely growth of the 
soil and the climate, with northern necessities, with 
"Washington for chief magistrate, the United States 
began their political career. It is none of my pur- 
pose to detail the story of national conquest. I 
point to the lofty ranges of events, stretching from 
east to west, from north to south, and, having done 
so, I entreat the eye to descend a little, and to mark 
along the habitable line of the mountains, and in 
the deep valleys opening up the interior, and across 
the plains that lie between, another institution, 



92 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



ev ri'-vTrhere presr::*. 1 ?Tery wiiere victorious ; 
I -^':.n the'Catlio::: 

T :^ i : : : L principles of the Aner- 

: :: : ^ ^: : eded by centuries theiuc r > 
e:: : : : . It however developed : 

^ : ? : A the republic, and its growth 

ivas proportionate from the first to the growth of 
the state. Tli- : parallel, hnmanly speaking, to 
the iDcrer — :: : r American state, is the still great- 
er i'lyjii-': :: :de American church. And if^ in 
studyiiig :d: 5 c ry of the former, we are surprised 
at Tie ::cc: c f ^:-e. giftedj and famous men, 
crc~ :c: - „ : c: c: ci of yearSj in the histo- 
c" : : c ~r shall find no scarcity of sancti- 

: : c i 7. nor of names "not born to die." 

die d:ccc::cr of the ^rst archbishop and ide 
dc^: : c :Ac ~ ~c c:A d of personal re- 

: : c : d d ~ : : c : think either trivial or 
ICC ; d d d c c A ? cae period in adjoining 
s : - : : cc - ~ d : c c c c } i among the aristocra- 
cy of the provinces, each endowed with decided 
talents for dec himself and others, both were 

called to d . c: issimilar authority at the first 
commencement of a new state of society. Ir tde 
wise forethought, the disinterested denic c c :d: 
grave courtesy, and the ardent patriotisc:: : ^c d 
bishop Carroll and General Washington t^ ^. r c 
striking similarity. To American Catholics, the 
character of their first chief pastor can never be- 
come old, nor tiresome, nor unlovely, anymore tLan 
the character of Washington can to citizens 0: all 
denominations. 



THE CHURCH IX THE REPUBLIC. 



93 



John Carroll, tliird ^c:: \ '' Carroll, an 

Irish e:llig^ran^ - :r:; a : V ^ . _ , jto'. alary- 
land, 0-_ J C_ r_._a;__a a 1/,' : aent to Europe 
to be educated, he sinC: C aaC:r a:? Jesuits of St. 
Omer's and Liege : ^":a . alaiaaa ia 1771 : ^as a pro- 
fessor at Liege ^v7 :a 1:^ order ara- suppressed in 
France, in 1773 : spent tvro years in England, in the 
faraily of the disiia a a 7 7 a. a a 1^ 

Stourtonand Arnnucx; ai.a rci:aia_. ; : . j...ryxai_ nas i 
as the reTolutionary war broke out. He was then in 
his fortieth year. Kis connection Trith the first Cath- 
olic families of Maryland and Virginia, his French 
urbanity and English experience, gave him a social 
influence which no previous missionary could expect 
to exercise. From the first, like all his relatives, 
he warmly espoused the cause of the colonies against 
George IIL. and his private letters to his English 
friends are often occupied arith a zealous but amia- 
ble defence of the side he had chosen.^ His agency 
in the Canada mission of 1776 I have treated al- 
ready in speaking of the revolution, and it is un- 
necessary to rehearse it here.t 

TVhat most concern- as novr. is the action taken 
-by the Catholic c7:an.y aa America consequent on 
the revolution, EiCa:a:o they had been under the 
control of "'the vi:aa at'Ostolic of the London dis- 
trict.*^ who governed them through his vicars. The 
revolution had hardly closed when, in 1753. they 

* Bicri-.r-ai-;:..! Sketch of Arckbis koi: CaiTok. by John Carroll Brent, 



94 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



applied to tlie liolj see to give tliem a new superior, 
and nominated Dr. Carroll for that dignity. In the 
next year Pope Pius VI. answered their unanimous 
application, and confirmed their choice. From 1784 
the separate organization of the American church 
may be dated, as that of the country may be dated 
from 1776. From 1790, when Dr. Carroll was or- 
dained its first bishop, its more regular government 
commenced, as that of the country did, with the 
adoption of the federal constitution, in 1789. Dr. 
Carroll has left on record, among a list of reasons 
why the revolution was favorable to the establish- 
ment of religion, the four following : — 

I. The leading characters of the first assembly, 
or congress, were, through principle, opposed to 
every thing like vexation on the score of religion ; 
and as they were perfectly acquainted with the max- 
ims of the Catholics, they saw the injustice of per- 
secuting them for adhering to their doctrines. 

II. The Catholics evinced a desire, not less ar- 
dent than that of the Protestants, to render the 
provinces independent of the mother country ; and 
it was manifest that, if they joined the common 
cause and exposed themselves to the common dan- 
ger, they should be entitled to a participation in 
the common blessings which crowned their efi"orts. 

"III. France was negotiating an alliance with 
the United Provinces ; and nothing could have re- 
tarded the progress of that alliance more effectual- 
ly than the demonstration of any ill will against 
the religion which France professed. 



THE CHURCH IN THE KEPUBLIC. 



95 



lY. The aid, or at least the neutrality, of Can- 
ada was judged necessary for the success of the en- 
terprise of the provinces ; and, by placing the Cath- 
olics on a level with all other Christians, the Cana- 
dians, it was believed, could not but be favorably 
disposed towards the revolution.'^ 

He adds that " it was not till after the war that 
the good effects of freedom of conscience began to 
develop themselves. And in a letter to one of his 
English friends, written in 1783, he says, An im- 
mense field is open to the zeal of apostolic men — 
universal toleration throughout this immense coun- 
try, and innumerable Eoman Catholics going and 
ready to go into the new regions bordering on the 
Mississippi, perhaps the finest in the world, and im- 
patiently clamorous for clergymen to attend them.'' * 

The apostolic men sighed for by the first bishop 
were soon vouchsafed to him. "When we come to 
make their acquaintance, we are again struck with 
surprise to find them mostly French. To that illus- 
trious nation it was given to supply a second crop 
of missionaries to this continent. The revolution 
which shook down so many noble roofs, and in- 
gulfed so many holy things, in France, flung out 
upon England and America the choicest spirits of 
the French church. Strange and wonderful are the 
decrees of Providence ; for who could think that to 
a Mirabeau or a Danton the Ohio and the Penob- 
scot should be indebted for Christian apostles ? Let 

* Brent's Sketch of Archbishop CarroU, p. 57. 



96 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMERICA. 



US select from tlie west and tlie east a representa- 
tive of tlie latter French missionaries in Americaj 
and study them with due attention. 

Benedict Joseph Flaget was born in the com- 
mune of St. Julien, in Auvergne, France, on the 7th 
of November, 1763. After his studies and ordina- 
tion he sailed from Bourdeaux for Philadelphia, with 
the Rev. Messieurs Chicoisnean, David, and Badin, 
in the year 1792. On reaching Baltimore he was 
despatched to the distant mission of Yincennes — 
since the revolution, no longer supplied from Que- 
bec. He crossed the Alleghanies in a wagon, made 
some stay at Pittsburg, descended the Ohio in a 
flat boat, and so entered on his labors. For fifty- 
seven years (from 1792 till 1849) this apostolic man 
continued his mission in the south-west, as priest, 
vicar general, and bishop. His early visits usually 
count by hundreds of miles, and his routes were 
often known only to himself. Where, in the begin- 
ning, he could not find a confessor without under- 
taking a vreek's journey, he lived to see two arch- 
bishops and eight bishops presiding over a numer- 
ous clergy and an innumerable laity. Often his 
only chancel had been the bower of some tall tree, 
and his only altar a rock by the wayside. His first 
congregations were some half-lost Indians, or almost 
equally neglected French, or a few Irish soldiers 
from a frontier post, under Clarke or Wayne. It 
was his lot to live in two ages of the American 
church. In half a century he had seen many changes 
in the west, but none so profound nor so important 



THE CHURCH IIn THE REPUBLIC. 



97 



as be had himself, under God, been instrumental in 
working.^ 

A not less amiable representative of the French 
clergy is found contemporaneously at the east in the 
person of the Abbe Cheverus, first bishop of Bos- 
ton, afterwards Cardinal of Bourdeaux. This emi- 
nent person, born at ZUayenne on the 28th of Janu- 
ary, 1768, fled from the irreligious revolution to 
England. There the invitation of the Abbe Mati- 
gnon, pastor of Boston, reached him : having accept- 
ed it, he reached his future see on the 3d of Octo- 
ber, 1796. In 1803 he had the happiness to see the 
first church consecrated in Boston ; and in 18C8 
Pius YII. raised him to the dignity of bishop. For 
fifteen years he continued the chief pastor of all 
the Catholics of New England, until recalled to 
still higher dignities in his native land. The story 
of those years can never be fully told. With a zeal 
that never flagged, this bishop united an humility 
that never slept. He shrunk from all conversation 
of himself, and did good alvrays by stealth. On 
some occasions he was discovered by the SAveet odor 
of his good works. His annual visits to the long 
shepherdless savages of Maine ; his prodigies of 
charity performed in the alleys of the city during 
times of pestilence : his he?ivenly meekness of de- 
meanor on all occasions, — were vividly remembered 

* The life of this aclmii'able person — the first bishop of the Tvest — 
has been beautifully Avritten by his third coadjutor and worthy succes- 
sor, Bishop Spalding. Louisville: Published by TVebb & Levering, 
1853. 

9 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



as long as one of liis contemporaries remained in 
New England.^ 

While to France belongs the glory of contributing 
a majority of the most venerable prelates and zeal- 
ous missionaries to the newly-formed chnrch in this 
republic, the neighboring state of Belgium has 
claims on our gratitude hardly less honorable. To 
her we owe the Badins, De Neckeres, and Nerinxbes 
among the dead, and their worthy successors among 
the living. Italy, also, sent her model of a bishop 
in Dr. Rosati ; Spain, her sainted Yarella ; while 
from Eussia we derived Father Demetrius Gallitzin, 
prince and priest. In proportion to their numbers, 
the native Catholics always contributed their rep- 
resentative share to the councils of the church, 
such as Drs. Neale and Eccleston, Archbishops of 
Baltimore, and the two Bishops Fenwick, who left 
indestructible monuments of their piety and wisdom 
in Ohio and Massachusetts. 

The church of Ireland, partially emancipated by 
tJie state in 1793, had shown the greatest zeal in the 
restoration of its own discipline, and, after a gen- 
eration, began to send out many missionaries. Its 
new seminaries swarmed with candidates for holy 
orders, and, incomplete as they were, produced a su- 
perabundant clergy. Of those who found their way 
into America it would be impossible to give a list. 

* In 1823, after twenty-seven years on the American mission, he re- 
tirrned to France and was made Bishop of Montauban ; in 1826, Arch- 
bishop of Bourdeaux ; in 1836, cardinal. On the 19th of July, the 
same year, he expired ; on the 26th he was interred in the cathedral. 



THE CHUECH IX THE EEPUBLIC. 



go- 



When, in 1808, Pope Pins VII. erected Boston, 
Barclstown,^ New York, and Philadelphia into 
sees, two Irish ecclesiastics, Drs. Egan and Conca- 
nen, were nominated to the last-named cities. With 
one exception in each place, both sees have since 
been filled by ecclesiastics of Irish birth. 

Among our venerable dead, the most distinguished 
Irish name is that of the first bishop of Charleston. 
John England was born in Cork, September 23, 
1786, educated at Carlow seminary, and consecrat- 
ed for Charleston in 1820. He died in the city 
of his see on the 11th of April, 1842, after twenty- 
two years of the inost various and distinguished 
services to religion in America. Nature had en- 
dowed this eminent prelate with a vast capacity 
and a temperament insatiable of labor. His only 
rest was change of work. History, politics, criti- 
cism came as familiar to his pen as theology or 
philosophy. He was equally happy as orator and 
writer ; and though the hurried fragments he threw 
off for the periodical press are often provokingly 
sketchy, they display workings of a powerful mind, 
inspired by a great soul. He was the first of our 
prelates who desired to bind the bays of literature 
round the brows of the young American church. 
All the leisure hours he could conscientiously spare 
from the visitation of his immense diocese he gave 
to study and composition. It was a generous re- 
gion, and the rage of the sects had not yet been 



* Translated to LouisviUe by Papal rescript in ISil. 



100 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMERICA. 



iDflamed to fury. His fame diffused itself from city 
to city, so that wlierever lie preached all classes 
gathered to listen. In Nevf Orleans the theatre was 
deserted for the church : in Boston the children of 
the Puritans monopolized the cathedral ; in Ken- 
tucky the backwoodsmen escorted him in admiration 
from village to village ; in Yv'^ashington the congress 
invited him to address the representatives of the 
nation assembled in the Capitol. All who heard 
were edified ; the poor understood, the scholars 
were instructed. With the generous disregard of 
the body natural to men of his genius, he wore out 
his powerful constitution in the fifty-sixth year of 
his age, leaving behind him a memory which assur- 
edly shall not die. 

We started with a parallel between the growth 
of the American state and church. In 1790 the 
state counted less than three millions, the church 
some fifty thousand ; in 1820 the state had increased 
to nearly ten millions, the church to perhaps one 
and a half ; in 1840 the state was seventeen millions, 
the church (according to Bishop England) about 
three millions. In the half century, w^hile the state 
had more than quintupled, the church had multi- 
plied a thousand fold ! The state had added Louis- 
iana, Florida, and the north-w^estern territory to its 
domain ; the church had simultaneously embraced 
them in her jurisdiction. Congress legislated for 
the tribes beyond the Rocky Mountains, governing 
from ocean to ocean ; the provincial councils had 
relations as widespread and cares as extensive ; 



THE CHURCH m THE REPUBLIC. 



101 



Congress had swelled to four times its original 
numbers ; the councils had increased as much in 
proportion within half the time. To our own day 
we need not push the parallel ; it is of more conse- 
quence to inquire into the causes of so marvellous 
an increase. 

Of the new territory which had come into the 
Union since the beginning of the century, every 
square mile had been ruled by a Catholic power and 
was stamped with a Catholic chara,cter. We have 
left far behind all question of priority in Maine, Ver- 
mont, western New York, Michigan, and Maryland. 
I speak now of what was once " the Illinois coun- 
try,^' of Louisiana, of Florida, and Texas ; let m.e 
add also New Mexico and California — regions 
which now make more than half the whole area of 
the country. From whom were these regions de- 
tached ? From France, Spain, and Mexico. What 
was their character when they peaceably submitted 
to your lav»^3 ? A Catholic character certainly. 
Their original contingent of population, Indian, half- 
bi-eed, or white, could not have fallen short of a 
million ; and the natural increase of that million 
may have been, since their acquisition, thirty per 
cent. I do not wish to overstrain such conjectural 
statistics ; I give them out mainly as probable ap- 
proximations to the uncertain truth. 

From Catholic governments has come all our in- 
crease of territory, while emigration has been a chief 
source of our increase in numbers. If the popula- 
tion over which Washington presided had quad- 
9 * 



102 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMEEICA. 



rupleu in two generations, vre Tronld have found but 
twelve millions in 1850. wliere we find twentv-four 
millions. We would tlien liave ranked after Prus- 
sia and Spain, and before Turkey and Brazil, instead 
of ranking where we do. Y\^hence came tlie other 
twelve millions ? From without : from emigration ; 
from the increase of emigrants lMs side of Washing- 
ton's presidency. 

In kind, as in quantity, this emigration was ma- 
terially more valuable than any the colonial times 
had known. Its uniform poverty was its most use- 
ful quality. There was an immense work of physi- 
cal development to be quickly done, for which work 
an emigration of laborers was the prime rec^nire- 
ment. A proprietary, or company emigration, like 
that to Plymouth or Baltimore, could never have 
supplied this element, at once mobile and uncostly. 
It was needful it should be an unorganized emigra- 
tion, in order that it might be more easily enlisted 
and drafted oft to its distant stations. The Ger- 
man villagers, who march in compact procession 
from the ship's side to the far west, do better fol" 
themselves, but not for the country. A steady sup- 
ply of cheap labor, a force vrhich could be freely 
mowed from point to point of national development, 
which could content itself to camp in shanties, and 
to turn its hand to any thing, however ay 
think of the wisdom of those Avho compose . . . as 
the great want of this republic in the last half c^en- 
tury ; and that want Catholic Ireland supplied. 
Native capital and native schools gave it captains 



THE CHURCH IN THE REPUBLIC c 



103 



and paymasters ; but the Irish were the rank and. 
file, and they did the work. 

I have spoken of the material value of the Irish 
emigration to the state : let us consider it a moment 
in a religious point of view. 

The first Irish emigrants, or exiles rather, had 
failed to implant Catholicity in British North Amer- 
ica. In retired spots of Barbadoes and Jamaica, 
Maryland and Pennsylvania, certain favored fami- 
lies, sprung from tUat stock, had retained the tra- 
ditions of their fathers ; a few had the happiness 
never to be totally deprived of the sacraments ; 
but the vast majority had, in the absence of church 
and priest, fallen insensibly away. From the Eng- 
lish till the American revolution, this is the sorrow- 
ful story of three generations, A better day had 
come with our present constitution, a.nd the second 
outpouring from Ireland was not destined to be 
religiously barren. The same properties which 
made the Irish poor essential to the growth of the 
new state, made them most serviceable to the exten- 
sion of the new church. Their poverty, in the eye 
of faith, clothed them in raiment richer than kings ; 
for, of all its titles, Christianity has still rejoiced 
most to be called " the religion of the poor. Our 
Lord and his apostles, — were they not poor ? The 
saints and servants of God in all ages, — did they not 
glory in poverty ? Who can forget those thrilling 
words, " The poor you have with you always ? 
Into America, destined to become the most prosper- 
ous nation the earth had seen ; where wealth was to 



104 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OP AMERICA. 



be the rule, and poyerty the exception ; Ti^Iiere gold 
Y'as to circulate through all classes, rather than be 
shut up as an idol in temples where merchants wor- 
ship, or lavished with Assyrian wastefulness on 
the palaces of effeminate princes, — among this rich 
democracy, unsightly clans of strangers — poor, ig- 
norant, despised, but believing in and obeying God 
— were to bring, wrapped up in their rags or hidden 
in their bosoms, the supernatural seed, whose growth 
was predestined to take the place of the natural 
forest. 

Admire the wonderful things God works with 
the humblest instruments. The Puritan possessed 
all Xew England — its cornfields and villages, its 
falling and flowing waters, its soil and its miner- 
als. He planned factories, modelled ships, pro- 
jected new routes of intercourse. Outcast Cath- 
olics came to his gate, asking for work and wages. 
They were welcome : they had arrived in good 
time. One was sent to the ship yard, another to 
the mill, a third to the railroad. As their masters 
looked on approvingly at their vrork, they dreamed 
not that every man there was fulfilling a double 
purpose — "rendering to Caesar the things that are 
Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. 
They dreamed not that the carpenter's axe was shap- 
ing cut. not only stanchions and ribs of ships, but 
altars and crosses. They dreamed not that the com- 
mon laborer in the field, girt with the sower's sheet, 
was canting mysterious mustard seed upon New Eng- 
land soil. "When the mill agent paid over his hard- 



THE CHURCH IN THE REPUBLIC. 



105 



earned wages to tlie operatives, little he dreamed 
that on the morrow a part of that Puritan capital 
would go to build a Popish church, or pay a priest, 
or to erect a Catholic school, an orphan asjdum, or 
a college. Yet so it had been ordered. The Puri- 
tan was to becopjie rich ; and the Catholic in his 
poverty was to come after him, to win wages from 
him by industry, and to erect in the land of the 
Puritan, with the money of the Puritan himself, the 
cross the Puritaii had so long rejected. 

Out of New England the same Providence is 
manifested. The merchants of New York desired 
to unite Lako Erie to the Hudson, for their own 
profit. An army of Catholic laborers is marshalled 
along the line. They penetrate from end to end of 
the great state. Their shanties spring up like mush- 
rooms in the night, and often vanish like mists in 
the morning. To all human appearances, they are 
only digging a canal. Stump orators praise them 
as useful spades and shovels, who helped on the 
great work of — making money. But looking back 
to-day, with the results of a third of a century 
before us, it is plain enough those poor, rude, and 
homeless men were working on the foundations of 
three episcopal sees, were choosing sites for five 
hundred churches, were opening the interior of the 
state to the empire of religion, as well as of com- 
merce. 

The same tale may be told of the mines of Penn- 
sylvania, Illinois, and Lake Superior, They are the 
catacom_bs of the church in their several regions. 



106 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



In unwholesome clamp, in caTernoiis darkness, in 
life-shortening toil, nncheered by air or sun, the Irish 
and German miner has wrought not for himself only, 
but for the church. Eeckless, profane, intemperate 
he may sometimes be, but beyond almsgiving never. 
Ask the missionary of a mineral district if he 
nas found those vrorkers in lead and iron hard or 
stolid raen. Have they preferred natural dark- 
ness to heavenly light ? Has their unenviable 
lot made them callous to the call of charity, or in- 
sensible to the love of God ? He vrill tell you that 
among those sons of earth, those familiars of dark- 
ness, he has often met the tenderest piety, the most 
fervent faith, and the noblest generosity towards 
religion. 

In the humbler regions, in the corn-growing 
countrv. in the river towns of the south-west, amoua; 

the 'long-shore men *' on the Atlantic, our religion 
has found her readiest resources. Xever was there 
a church which could so truly be called the church 
of the poor and of the people. Xo Constantino, no 
Clovis, no royal apostle like St. Olaf or St. Eric 
has been here. The alms of the poor laid the broad 
foundation, the mechanics raised the walls, the ser- 
vants adorned the sanctuaries. This is the true 
glory and true history of the church in America — 
a glory and history most largely shared by her Irish 
children. Great material works they will leave 
behind them, but far greater moral consequences ; 
cathedrals, not canals, shall be their witnesses with 
posterity ; the church in the new world shall be 
their enduring monument. 



THE CHUECH I>T THE EEPUBLIC. 



107 



The last complete exliibition of tlie extent of the 
church in this republic ^vas the national council 
which assembled in Baltimore on the 9Lh of May, 
1852. It was presided over by the illustrious and 
most reverend Francis Patrick Kendrick, ablegate 
of the holy see. Eight archbishops, twenty-six 
bishops, and one mitred abbot, with their several 
chaplains and theologians, were present ; the prel- 
ates of Oregon, 'California, New ilexico. and the 
Indian territory included. The jurisdiction of tha,t 
august assembly extended wherever our flag flies. 
In all the requirements of Christian rulers, — in 
piety, learning, wisdom, energy, elociuence, address, 
— the least partial observer must have admitted 
them to be well Cjualified. Those who looked 
deeply at that august array, gathered from the four 
winds, representing the Indian, Spanish, French, 
American, Germau, and Irish populations of the 
continent, must have felt how truly it deserved to 
be called Catholic. Sixty years before, Dr. Carroll 
summoned his synod in that same city. He was 
then the only bishop in this republic. His three 
vicars, the president of his local seminary, and six- 
teen priests came at his invitation. The older 
missionaries thanked God they had lived to see the 
wonderful things they saw. If it had been possible 
so far to prolong the span of human life, if the 
venerable Carroll could have lived to see this sight, 
his reason might have doubted its reality. He had 
sung the song of triumph, exulting in his day ; but 
how much more would he rejoice if he had lived 



108 



CATHOLIC HISTOBY OF AMERICA. 



to witness the council over which Archbishop Ken- 
drick presided I 

With his thorough knowledge of the past history 
of religion in America, he would have said, " The 
invocation of our Blessed Lady by those first voy- 
agers was not in vain. Not in vain was the blood 
of the holy martyrs shed on the Penobscot, the Mo- 
hawk, at the Sault Ste. Marie, at Natchez, and in 
Florida. Not in vain did the children of St. Igna- 
tius and St. Dominic cross the Atlantic ten genera- 
tions ago to found an American church. It is 
founded ; it stands ; and it shall stand ! Ay, it 
shall stand,— 

" Moored in the rifted roch^ 
Proof to the tempest shock ; 
Deeper it strikes, the louder it blows ! 

It shall stand ; and successive generations, gath- 
ered in the shelter of its gigantic wings, may well 
wonder why it was ever hated, or feared, or misun- 
derstood. They will need no lecturer to tell them 
then of the Catholic history of North America ; 
they will learn it in the songs of their mothers, in 
the stories of their fathers, from pictures on their 
walls, from statues in the streets, from their earliest 
school books and earliest associates. This is no 
distempered dream. If half a century has done so 
much for the church in the republic, why may not 
another half do as much more, if the fault be not 
our own ? 

One lesson we must learn ourselves and teach our 



THE CHtSCH THE ilEPUELIC, 109 

cliilclren. It is, to knc^ our antecedents ; to glo- 
ry in our predecessors in tlie faith ; to be ever ready- 
to explain, but never to apologize, for the faith of 
our fathers. True, our American predecessors for 
the most part belong not to your nationality nor 
to mine ; they are Italians, Spaniards, Frenchmeuo 
True that none among ns may inherit the blood of 
the Catholic queen or the pious admiral ; yet do 
they belong to us and we to them. Catholicity rec- 
ognizes nationalities only to unite them. We are 
alike members of a corporation that cannot die* 
They are united to antiquity as we are to them ; 
the first born, of our household saw Christ ; our 
last born shall see Antichrist. Mystical bonds bind 
us together, stretching far away beyond the grave 
of the past and the cradle of the future. As one 
in faith and in sacrifice, Time shall know us, and 
pass us on into Eternity. 

In her mature age the Catholic church begot 
America, before Protestantism was born in a by- 
way of Germany. The heart of our Holy Mother 
has always yearned for this Benjamin of her house^ 
hold. The most illustrious Catholics have taken 
the deepest interest in American affairs ; to mention 
St. Francis Borgia, and St. Francis Regis, Cardinal 
Ximenes, Bishop Las Casas, Queen Isabella, Colum- 
bus, De Soto, and Champlain, were enough. Many 
others are almost equally worthy of commemora* 
tion among us ; but the roll would be long to callj 
and their services God alone can requite. 

From the beginning of her civilized existence^ 
10 



110 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA, 



America ottgs every thing to Catholicity, to Saxon 
Engiandj to orthodox France, to pious Spain ; above 
all, to Rome. Every order in the church, from the 
mendicant friar to the pope on his throne, has had 
a hand in your development. In the church, by 
children of the church, the very arts and means 
.were made by which America was discovered and 
explored. Geography rescued by monks from the 
hands of Yandals ; astronomy nourished in the clois- 
ters and cathedrals of the middle ages ; missionary 
memoirs of distant lands leading timorous Commerce 
in the wake of fearless Christianity ; the discovery 
of the compass by a Neapolitan ; the sacred shield 
of the church held over peaceful travellers and all 
men of science who sought not to give the lie to 
God, — these are debts which America owes to the 
Catholic church. Did ever ocean enterprise appeal 
in vain to the sanction of that church which claimed 
to teach all nations ? Inquire of Portugal and 
Spain. Did ever lawful commerce find an enemy 
in Rome ? Look to the code of Amalfi, the excom- 
munication against those who waylaid merchants, 
to the favor shown the Hanseatic league, to Pisa and 
to Venice ; above all, look to the life of Columbus. 

This continent discovered, who are its bravest 
pioneers — the men of trade, or the men of faith ? 
What light is that we see shooting through the in- 
terior forest, tempting the student^s eye to follow ? 
Before the fire of the trapper's gun struck down his 
woodland game, before the edge of the exile's axe 
had caught a ray of western sunshine, a mild and 



THE CHURCH IN THE REPUBLIC. 



ill 



steady light is perceptible in tlie primitive forest ; 
and by its friendly aid we discover tlie Indian 
kneeling before the pine-tree cross, Tvhile " the black 
robe pours on his humbled head the vraters of re- 
generation. 

Colonization commences, and the church steps in 
to arbitrate between Christian princes ; to protect 
the outraged savages ; to declare the moral obliga- 
tions of sovereignty ; to preach peace, and justice, 
and mercy in the van of armies, in the camps of 
conquerors, in the councils of ambitious settlers 
and speculators from Europe. Go learn of the 
Catholics who colonized on the St. Lawrence, the 
Wabash, the Potomac, and the Apalachicola, two 
centuries ago, the unity of the human race, the 
true brotherhood of man, the just foundation of 
equal rights. 

And when our own republic assumes its separate 
state and proclaims its independent will, how 
promptly Rome concedes it a separate episcopacy ! 
how tenderly she fosters it ! how proudly she ca- 
resses it ! 

Our history in America, my dear friends, is noble 
and encouraging. Its more frequent study must make 
us love the country better, and the church not less. 
It must also help to inspire that easy and habitual 
sense of social right so necessary to enable us to 
discharge gracefully all the obligations good citi- 
zens owe to a good government. 



THE EELATIOXS OP IRELAND lis]) 
AMERICA, -TYVO DISCOURSES. 



HISTORICAL RELATIOXS.* 

If, ladies and gentkmCiU ilie present exciting po* 
litical discussion about the place and position of 
foreigners in the United States is to be deplored, it 
is rather on account of the tone and temper than of 
the subject matter of the discussion. No political 
question can be more worthy the attention of a 
great and fast-spreading commonvrealth than the 
elements ivhieh compose it and give it vigor, the 
foreign admixtures it receives, the influences which 
act on it from within or from without* It is only 
when the examination becomes an angry argument^ 
when men fail in mutual courtesy and in the self* 

* Some repetition cf ideas presented in tlie last discourse on the 
Catholic history ^\\ be detected in this and the follo^ving lecture ; but 
as the subject is here treated from a new point of. view, and with fuller 
details than would be proportionate in the previous discourses, we hope 
the courteous reader will forgive a few repetitions which could not well 
l>€ avoided. 



(112) 



HISTORICAL EELATIOXS 



113 



possession Ijeconiing those vrho debate, not for tri- 
umph, but for truth, that such discussions turn to 
public pests, and call aloud for quarantine regula- 
tion. 

I may have some views to advance to-night which 
are not generally acceptable : I shall have to state 
some facts not currently quoted ; but I trust my 
words will be without offence to any lionest man : 
and as to the proofs, let them speak for themselves. 
I desire to advance no claims which the facts will 
not warrant ; and the public shall be the judge be- 
tween the facts and the conclusions I may draw. 

The United States, as they stand to-day, have had 
two main sources of population — the colonial popu- 
lation as it existed at the date of the revolution, 
and extraneous additions since the revolution. If 
we are to analyze the first period, we must be guided 
by the state papers, colonial and British ; by local 
histories and memoirs of new settlements ; by that 
series of historical documents in which every state 
of the old thirteen is still able to trace its origin 
with tolerable accuracy. 

In all our colonial memoirs we find the cardinal 
defect of European history ; they are the story of 
the few, told by the partisans of the few ; they go to 
exalt great names, not to show the social condition 
of the many. The proprietary system, under which 
the colonization first began, necessarily gave the 
turn of panegyric to all those first accounts ; for 
family pride was not thrown overboard in the outer 
voyage. In every history of Yirginia, it is easy to 
"^10* 



114 CATHOLIC HISTOSY OF AMERICA. 

find vrliG ^as colonel or wlio Tvas councillor to the 
governor ; in every history of Massachusetts, it is 
equally easy to find vlio vras a gentleman in good 
circumstances, that came out with Governor Win- 
throp." but not so easy to ascertain who was the 
son of the nameless mechanic, or common cultivator, 
vrithout whose presence here there could have been 
no Massachusetts and no Virginia. 

Of two classes in our original population it is 
next to impossible to find any record : I mean the 
convicts and the redt/nptioners. Did these classes 
leave no descendants ? Or are we to account for 
the modern silence in relation to them on the prin- 
ciple of that mistaken pride of pedigree, in which 
not even the Spaniard or the Magyar exceeds some 
of our republicans ? If family pride conceals the 
true or invents a false origin for its American tree, 
it is as ignorant as it is inconsistent. It ought to 
be thought no disgrace to descend from men who 
were cojivicts under the barbarous English penal 
code of the seventeenth century : a code which pun- 
ished over fuur hundred difl'erent otiences with death ; 
a code which, under Cromwell's commonwealth, ex- 
ecuted three thousand unfortunate wretches for 
witchcraft ; a code which, in the absolute days of 
the Stuarts, made, and even till our own day makes, 
the shootiug of a partridge a capital felony. Those 
among us who claim to be of the h^est families boast 
that their ancestors were fugitives from British law 
as it formerly existed. What advantage can the 
fugitive claiui over the convict, except the advantage 



HISTOEICAL RELATIONS. 



115 



of escape over conyiction ? It is altogether a ques- 
tion of time and of terms, not at all of real differ- 
ence or of necessary superiority. 

The conyict class in our colonial population was 
large in tlie seyenteenth century ; and though its 
mortality yras immense, its increase was not wholly 
cut off. It was in the year 1619, I belieye, that 
King James I. shipped the first cargo of convicts 
to Virginia, consisting of one hundred souls. The 
custom was continued annually till the early part 
of the reign of George III., notwithstanding the 
frequent remonstrances and sometimes the success- 
ful opposition of the free settlers. In six years 
after the first transportation nine thousand convicts 
had arrived in Virginia ; but such were the hard- 
ships to which they were exposed, that only eighteen 
hundred, or twenty per cent, of the whole, remained 
in the colony. It is not necessary, I repeat, to sup- 
pose this unhappy class to be composed of criminal 
offenders ; the English gallows did its work too 
thoroughly for that. Insurgent peasants who re 
sisted the enclosure of common lands, minor offend- 
ers, and at some periods political offenders, were 
those usually sentenced for life to his majesty^s 
tobacco plantations in America." 

The Irish policy of the lord protector was depop- 
ulation, and during his ten years' iron rule a vast 
number of our people were transported beyond 
seas.'' The republican commissioners appointed by 
him to report on the condition of Ireland, recom- 
mended in 1652, among other measures, " that Irish- 



116 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF A3IERICA. 



"vromen. as being too numerous no?r. and therefGre ex- 
posed to prcsfifutlo/u (tlie hypocrites !) be sold to mer- 
chants, and transported to Virginia, Xew England, 
Jamaica, or other conntries/"' Trhere. of coarse, they 
could not be exposed to such temptation. Sir Wil- 
liam Petty states that six thousand boys and women 
^vere shipped to the "West Indies alone ; Bruodin, 
another contemporary, sets down the entire number 
transported in Cromwell's [en years at one hun- 
dred thousand souls : a manuscript in the late Dr. 
Lingard's possession set the total at sixty thousand. 
The whole white population in British America, at 
that time, was not as many more. 

The pretended Popish plots in Charles 11. "s reign • 
the revolution of 1688. which fell so heavily on Ire- 
land : the laws of William restricting Irish manu- 
factures ; and the laws of Anne extirpating Catholic 
worship, — directly operated to drive a part of every 
Catholic generation out of Ireland. The present 
Earl Fitzwilliam (than whom no English statesman 
has a better collection of Irish statistics) has stated 
the number of expatriated ''Irish operatives *' in the 
reign of King Yrilliam at one hundred thousand. 
A large proportion of these entered the military 
service of the Catholic powers of the old continent, 
vrhere France, Spain, Austria, and even Kussia. still 
cherish with afl^ection traditions of their Irish sol- 
diers. What proportion of the total found their 
way to America, I am unable to discover. That the 
number was large, we may infer from the general 
statements of our best local historians. Bozmau 



HISTORICAL RELATIONS. 



117 



mentions the Irisli insurrection of 1641 as liaving 
^' affected the population of the province of Mary- 
land. " Of all other countries," says Dr. Ramsay, 
in his History of South Carolina, " none has fur- 
nished the colony with so many inhabitants as Ire- 
land. Scarce a ship sailed from any of its ports for 
Charleston that was not crowded with men, wo- 
men, and children." In North Carolina, the de- 
scendants of early Irish emigrants played a princi- 
pal part throughout the last century ; in Pennsyl- 
vania, if Holmes's statistics for 1729 do not form a 
very exceptional case, the arrivals from Ireland were 
almost ten to one to those from the rest of Europe, 
being five thousand six hundred and fifty-five Irish 
to six hundred and fifty-six from all other coun- 
tries. Among these emigrants Vv^ere some of fallen 
fortune and good education. The Moores, Lynches, 
Burkes, and Rutledges, who figure in the history of 
the Carolinas, were of the best blood of Catholic 
Ireland. Another class became successful mer- 
chants ; as the Moylans, Sheas, Meases, and Dela- 
neys, of the port of Philadelphia. Others still be- 
came noted as teachers ; as Thomas Neil, mentioned 
in the History of Wyoming, and the father of the 
Sullivans — one of the most honorably distinguished 
families in the revolutionary history of New Eng- 
land. 

A large portion of the early Irish emigrants 
probably belonged to the class called, in colonial 
phrase, redemptioners. These were persons unable 
to pay their own passage out ; who bound themselves 



118 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



by contract to serve a certain period here, to redeem 
their passage. Like the convicts to the tobacco 
plantations, it is impossible now to collect the sta- 
tistics of the northern redemptioners. They were a 
numerous class, and some of the most honored 
names in our history were redemptioners. Secretary 
Thompson was one ; Matthew Thornton was one ; 
the pa.rehts of Major General and Governor Sulli- 
van were redemptioners ."^ 

There is another remarkable class of Irish emi- 
grants previous to the revolution ; I mean ^' the 
Scotch-Irish.'^ These began to emigrate in consid- 
erable numbers about the beginning of the last 
century. I\Ir. Dobbs, M. P. for Armagh at that 

* By tlie British Emigration Commissioners' report for 1854, we find 
that the same practice — which they erroneously call " a new princi- 
ple" — has been introduced into the economy of Australian emigra- 
tion. They report : — 

" In Xew South Wales a new principle has been introduced of great 
importance, and which, if it succeeds, will effect a considerable change 
in the position of the emigrants selected and sent out by this board. 
The object of this change is to m^ake the emigration to a great extent 
self-supporting. With this view, the price of passage to a first-class 
emigrant is fixed at thirteen pounds, and to the second class at fifteen 
pounds, and these amounts are required to be paid by or on account of 
each emigrant either in this country or in the colony. 

" To carry out the scheme, an act was passed by the legislature, 
providing that all emigrants sent out at the expense of public funds 
should, before embarkation, enter into an agreement with us either to 
repay the amount still remaining due from them within fourteen days 
of tlieir arrival in the colony, or to take service for two years with an 
employer, who should undertake to repay that amount out of their ac- 
cruing wages. But a power is reserved to the emigrant to terminate 
such agreements after the first twelve months, by giving three months* 
notice, and paying up the unpaid instalments of the passage money." 



HISTOEICAL EELATIGXS 



119 



period, stated the arerage nirmber at three tlioiisa.nd 
a year. Hillsboro" county. NeAv Hampshire. ULster 
county, Xew York. Trestern Pennsylvania, and west- 
ern Yirghiia. T\-ere their chief settlements. They 
Trere a friigaL hardv, intrepid race of Sctoticized 
Celts. They have given many illustrious names to 
this nation. Montgomery. Stark, Reed. Maxvrell, 
McDowell, and Jackson are all derived from the 
stout Scotch-Irish. They are more easily found in 
our history than their Catholic or old Irish contem- 
poraries, because they are always met in groups ; 
because their kirk was encouraged and our church 
was proscribed before the revolution : because they 
were frequently proprietors, and our class were 
generally laborers, without any fixed abodes or 
church organization. I honor and admire the thrift- 
ing and ambitious Scotch-Irish : but I do not believe 
that they at any time constituted the numerical 
majority, nor even a half, of the Irish in America. 

My first argument is this — that from the reign 
of James I. till the revolution, a period of one hun- 
dred and fif'ry years, there were always Irish in 
America : that in Cromweirs time, especially, an 
immense infusion of that race took place ; that 
having no special religious organization, and occu- 
pying no exclusive ground, they got mingled up 
from the start into the very being of the old colo- 
nial population ; and that the revolution was com- 
menced by a people, not numerous even then, who 
must have had almost, if not cpiite, as much Irish 
blood in them as any other blood. To make it 



120 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMEBICA. 



plainer still, let me say, in the language used in 
1843 by Mr. Conrad, of Philadelphia, that Ireland 
is historically, I will not say, with him, " the moth- 
er country,^^ but one of the parent sources of our 
native population. I leave it to the .curious in 
figures to calculate her precise contingent ; I am 
content to show that she had her share in the popu- 
lation from the first, as she has now, and that the 
current theory which derives our national life, and 
therefore our national obligations to the past, sole- 
ly from the Anglo-Saxon stock, is historically false, 
besides being politically fatal to the true greatness 
of America. 

It may be objected that the very fact of hav- 
ing to argue the question of our origin at this late 
day makes against my first conclusion. I deny 
that it does so. Fifty years ago it stood in no need 
of argument in the majority of the states ; it never 
entered the heads of our predecessors here that 
their countrymen would be treated as intruders 
after their time, and ingratitude be shown to the 
dead to cover over injustice to the living. They 
made no books out of their exploits ; they preferred 
no posthumous claims upon national remembrance. 
The names of Hand, Moylan, Barry, Fitzsimons, 
and the brave O'Briens, of Machias, were almost 
forgotten, w^hen I, myself, rescued them from the 
moth and mildevf and the studied neglect of sec- 
tional bookmakers. The work of historical retri- . 
bution has only begun ; but with the blessing of 
God it will be followed up, until we show our 



HISTOBICAL RELATIONS. 



121 



boastful Anglo-Saxon theorists that the race they 
thought politically dead in Europe had a resurrection 
in America, and that from America it can still send 
its strong voice across the -^aves, to tell our mother- 
land to be of good cheer, for the day of her deliv- 
erance also will assuredly come round. 

I pass from the colonial to the revolutionary 
period — that stirring and brilliant generation, 
which began vrith the non-importation agreement, 
and ended with the federal constitution. Many 
details are not necessary here, for this subject is 
familiar to yon all. Let me briefly remind yon of 
Ireland's relations with America at that trying 
period. And while I recall the facts, so glorious 
to the people to whom I belong, do not misunder- 
stand me. We ask no gratitude on account of the 
past ; but we invoke the past to rebuke the injus- 
tice of the present. We call on the dead, not for 
patronage, but for reference : and we would desire 
nothing better for our cause than that the august 
form which led them living might arise in the 
front rank of the solemn inquest, and seal the gen- 
eral verdict with the supreme authority of Wash- 

IXGTOX. 

At the period of the first rupture between the 
colonies and Great Britain, Ireland contained 
above four million inhabitants, and the colonies 
less than three millions. Ireland had a local legis- 
lature, whose proposed acts had first to pass the 
King's Privy Council ; in 1782 this restriction was 
first removed. Abroad, besides the Irish in the 
11 



122 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA, 



colonie^ -----^ Tvero t^:; r-:uarlialjle sets of Irish- 
men, o: ^ the Fro:: i^iTice. and Trriters and 

orators in England. What was the relation of the 
Iri^h clas-es towards the American cause? One of 
nniiLrni friendship, of enthusiastic admiration, of 
_::a.heal and powerful cooperadon. 

will speak first of the parent stoct. Bv a 

lar concurrence. Ireland and America began 
__^.:^-mung at the ctitos of British power for redress 
at one and the same tune. Both lumnn with the 
nayigation act. with taxation, au'l A'rO trade : both 
advanced bv degrees to declarations of political 
sovereignty — ^ America in '76, Ireland in ITSO : 
both obtained the recognition of their demands the 

' voar. from the same ministry and the same 

.^..■.^..loh. This identity of causes produced identity 
of feeling : identity of feeling led to open acts of 
W'mpathy and correspondence : the double diver- 

^:hus effected was mutually beneficial. Ameri- 
: resistance gave Ireland an opportunity to pro- 
pose her z//fu;:u:hu/? ; and Ireland's iiltimatu/7i helped 
to hasten the recognition of America's independ- 
ence. 

Let me cjuote a few authorities for this exposi- 
tion. In 1771 Dn. Fuaxklix visited Dublin, of 
which visit he writes to Thomas Gushing, of Bos- 
ton : Before leaving Ireland. I must mention 
that, being desirous of seeing the principal patriots 
thero\ I staid till the opening of their parliament. 
I found them disposed to he friends to America, in 
which I eadeavored to confirm them, voith the ex- 



HISTORICAL EELATIONS. 



123 



pectation that our growing weight might in time 
be thrown into their scale, and, bj^ joining our inter- 
est with theirs, a more equitable treatment from 
this nation (England) might be obtained for them as 
well as for usJ^ 

When, in 1775, the Continental Congress resolved 
openly to cast off the yoke, they directed addresses, 
among others, to the Irish people. Their lan- 
guage, on this occasion, is remarkably fraternal and 
sympathetic. Let me quote a few sentences : — 

And here " (they write) ^' permit us to assure you 
that it was with the utmost reluctance we could 
prevail upon ourselves to cease our commercial con- 
nection with your island. Tour parliament had 
done us no wrong ; you had ever been friendly to 
the rights of mankind ; and we acknowledge with 
pleasure and with gratitude that your nation has 
produced patriots who have nobly distinguished 
themselves in the cause of humanity and America.^' 

This address, to be found among the papers of 
that congress, is dated July 28, 1775, and signed 
JoHX Hancock, president. 

While the congress that issued this address was 
still sitting in Philadelphia, the Parliament at Dub- 
lin and London w^ere hardly less occupied with 
American affairs. Li Dublin the patriots were still 
in a minority, though every day added to their ranks. 
In the session of ^75, Henry Grattan, then in his 
twenty-ninth year, entered Parliament for the first 
time. In that session the question of voting troops 
for America came up, the king having made a requi- 



124 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



sitioii for four thoiisand men. This tlie patriots 
'vrarmlv opposed, but for the time ihe Castle party 
prevailed. Session after session thev renewed their 
opposition in voting the supplies, and in. '79 they 
had a majority. Lord Buckinghamshire, then vice- 
roy, in his official despatches to the government at 
London speaks of the patriots of that day as " the 
American party.'" as inspired by French and 
American influences.'"' In the British House of 
Lords, the Earl of Chatham, in his own forcible style, 
declared ^'Ireland to be American : and in Burke's 
Bristol speech, the same notorious sympathy of 
sentiment between the countries is taken for 
granted. 

In the London Parliament, and throughout the 
war, the illustrious group of vrhigs of Irish birth 
— Sheridan, Barre, Tierney, Fitzpatrick, but above 
all Edmund Burke — gave a powerful moral sup- 
port to the colonial cause. Burke's first work was 
on the European settlements in America. He had 
been agent of the Province of Xew York in the 
early stages of the contest : he continued the friend 

Franklin and Laurens, and the enemy of Lord 
North^s measures, till its close. 

Consider the moral weight of such speeches as 
Burke delivered from such an eminence as the 
great council of the British empire. His niagnin- 
cent genius looked down upon the earth with the 
scrutiny and the elevation of a pure spirit. Be- 
neath him, at his hand, lay Hindostan, with all its 
rivers and cities ; his glance pierced the densest 



HISTORICAL HELATIOXS 



125 



jungles of Africa : Europe Tvas all familiar to him, 
and in its wildest mood lie swung- it. round again into 
the old orbit : on America he had long fixed those 
studious eyes which searched through all ages and 
regions for worthy subjects on which to employ his 
powers. Dignified as was the attitude of the colo- 
nies, it became still more so in his description ; for 
the amplification of virtue was the favorite office 
of his genius. Great as any occasion might be. he 
was always greater : he spread over an immense 
subject like the sun over our earth, visited every 
side of it with impartial fervor, leaving nothing to 
be imagined but the source of his inspiration, and 
nothing to be desired but its perpetual manifes- 
tation. 

Do I need quotations to sustain this eulogy ? 
There is not a schoolboy in the land but can give 
you Burke's speeches on American taxation and con- 
ciliation. The greatest orator that ever used our 
tongue as his weapon, he ushered independent Amer- 
ica into history in two orations, which nothing of 
anticjuity excels and nothing since his time has 
equalled. 

The Irish brigade in the French service, in 'To, 
was one of the most famous military bands in Eu- 
rope. According to the Due de Feltre. four hun- 
dred thousand Irish soldiers died in the service of 
France in the last century — a fact which gives 
national importance to that military emigration. 
When the Franco-American alliance was first moot- 
ed, the entire brigade volunteered for America ; but 
" 11 * 



126 CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMERICA. 

France was not vet resolved on vrar. A number of 
their officers were, however, sent out with Admiral 
de Ternay, (himself of that race.) and Count do 
Eochambeau, who brought over six thousand French 
troops. I need but refer to the names of the Dil- 
lons, — who afterwards died so gallantly in defence 
of ilarie Antoinette, — of Count Philip Roche- 
Fermoy, of the imprudent but generous inspector 
general Thomas Conway, of the Marquis jfcMahon, 
and other distinguished French-Irish officers who 
served in the last campaigns of the revolution, and 
the survivors of whom formed in one of those two 
files between which Cornwallis marched with empty 
scabbard out of Yorktown. 

Of the part taken by the Irish in the colonies I 
need hardly remind you. They were at Bunker's 
Hill under Stark and Eeed : at Quebec with Mont- 
gomery ; at Saratoga with Gates ; at Flatbush with 
Sullivan and Hand ; at Stony Point with "Wayne 
and Moylan ; at Trenton and the Brandywine with 
Washington ; at Eutaw Sprinu's with Greene ; at 
Savannah and at YorktOAvn. To use the words of 
the venerable George Vrashington Parke Custis, 
They were distinguished in every action of the 
war.'^ 

At sea, the affair at Macliias Bay, called by Mr. 
Fennimore Cooper " the Lexington of the seas/'^ 
was fought under the brothers O'Brien ; some of 
the crew and officers of Paul Jones were Irish ; the 
leading part taken by Commodore John Barry, in 
the organization of the first navy of the United 



HISTORICAL RELATIOXS. 



127 



States, is now familiar to you all. This Irish Cath- 
olic won for himself the proud title of father of 
the United States navy. On the peace establish- 
ment, previous to 1801, vre find Captains Barry, 
McNeil, Barron, Mullownev, and James Barron ; 
Lieutenants Eoss, McElroy, McEea, O'Driscoll, 
Byrne, Somers, McCutchen, and McClelland ; Mid- 
shipmen McDonough, Roach, Carroll, Magrath, 
Fleming, Hartigan, Hennessy, Dunn, O'Brien, Walsh, 
Blakely, T. McDonough, T. Moore, C. Moore, Eos- 
sitter, McConnell, Blake, Kearney, and Casey — all 
Irish, by birth or parentage. 

In the civil service of the republic, during the 
revolution, we have Charles Thompson, the Clin- 
tons, Thomas Fitzsimons, of Philadelphia, the three 
CarroUs, the Lynches, father and son, and the 
brothers Eutledge — men who took part in every 
civil labor during the contest, from the first volun- 
tary associations till the establishment, in 1789, of 
the federal constitution. 

It thus appears that all the available Irish talent 
in Europe and America, military and parliament- 
ary, was cheerfully employed in the service of 
America during her struggle for independence. Let 
me repeat here what I said of the colonial period, 
that I have not adduced these facts to found on 
them any claim to national gratitude at the present 
day. The Irish in America, in this generation, want 
no national gratitude ; we ask only fair play, only 
the truth of history, for the honor of our race and 
the instruction of our children. 



128 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



We have conducted this inquiry to the period of 
Washington's presidency, 1790. Another genera- 
tion brings us to our own times, to 1820. In these 
thirty years the growth of America was unex- 
ampled ; the north-west began to be peopled ; Flor- 
ida and Louisiana were added to our territory ; 
eight new states were admitted ; and the population 
increased from three to ten millions. The policy 
of acquisition and extension was inaugurated by 
President Jefferson and his party, to which the ma- 
jority of the citizens of Irish origin always be- 
longed. They are entitled to whatever credit is 
due those who sustained that policy against the 
powerful opposition of the old federal party. Jef- 
ferson and Madison have cheerfully given them that 
credit in their correspondence ; and the former, so 
early as 1794, points out, in a letter to the latter^ 
the Irish element as one of the chief resources of 
the anti-British and anti-aristocratic party. I am 
not going into the merits of that or any other 
party ; I say only that the country has thriven un- 
der democratic direction, and that the credit is due 
to those who filled its ranks, and firmly sustained 
its chiefs, while their line of policy was as yet an 
experiment. 

In two departments the Irish, from 1790 to 1820, 
rendered America important services — on her pub- 
lic works and in the war with England. That war 
was declared by Congress on the recommendation 
of a committee, four of whose members were of Irish 
parents or Irish birth ; and Calhoun was their chair- 



HISTORICAL RELATIONS. 



129 



mail. Of tlie familiar events of the war it is not 
necessary to say miicli : you all know of what stock 
Crogan, and Brady, and McComb, and Eiley, and 
McDonongh, so distinguished in the north-west, 
were : you all know Jackson, and Carroll, and 
Coffee, and Butler, of the decisive battle of New 
Orleans. I do not dwell on these familiar names, 
but merely ask you to add them to the account 
which I have undertaken to lay before you. 

Let me call your attention to the fact that in this 
war adopted citizens born in the British domin- 
ions fought at an immense disadvantage ; since by 
the prince regent's proclamation of October, 1812, 
all such persons were warned that, if taken prison- 
ers, they would be treated as " rebels," President 
Madison and the officers of the American army 
could only apply in their favor the law of retalia- 
tion, which, in the well-known case of General Scott 
and the Irish prisoners in Canada, was found to be 
efficacious. Whoever will look carefully through 
the annals of the second English war will find that 
the threats of the prince regent did not deter the 
Irish part of the citizen soldiery from doing their 
duty by their adopted country. The war of 1812 
was, in fact, the adopted citizens' war ; a war in de- 
fence of the rights of the naturalized, on sea or on 
shore ; a war against New England's prejudices as 
well as Old England's power ; and a war largely 
indebted to captains and men of Irish descent for 
its glorious termination. Even if it is a sore spot, I 
cannot overlook the conduct of the most Anglican 



130 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA, 

part of tlie United States — Connecticut, Rhode 
Island, and Massachusetts — in that contest. Their 
famous Hartford convention" has not yet entirely 
faded from the public memory. They formed a 
" peace party," helpful only to the enemy ; they 
rang their Boston bells for British victories, and 
tolled them for their own ; they denied that the 
president could delegate his power over the local 
militia to officers commissioned by him ; they gave 
every obstruction to their own forces, and every aid 
to the enemy short of overt acts of treason. The . 
war of 1812 was fought, against all the Anglican 
influences on this soil, by the true Americans, native 
and naturalized ; none of its laurels, none of its 
solid results, belong to the Anglican faction which 
has always existed here, and chiefly in New Eng- 
land. 

The public works of the United States have been 
done on so gigantic a scale, and in so short a space 
of time, that they deserve to be classed as historical 
events. In 1790 the western boundary of the Mid- 
dle States was still the Blue Ridge. The Cumber- 
land Road, the Erie, and the Chesapeake and Dela- 
ware Canals, were as yet unattempted. These great 
works were mainly done by Irish hands ; and it is 
now known that the Erie Canal was designed and 
surveyed by Christopher Colles, of Dublin, long be- 
fore it was adopted by De Witt Clinton as the 
project of his life. The Middlesex Canal in Massa- 
chusetts owed as much to Governor Sullivan as the 
Erie Canal did to Governor Clinton ; and the first 



HISTORICAL RELATIONS. 



131 



railroad New England had was mainly tlie work of 
Patrick Tracey Jackson, of Boston, a venerable 
citizen of Irish descent, whom I myself remember 
to have seen. 

I claim the merit of the headwork as well as the 
handwork in these undertakings. The first claim 
may be ungratefully forgotten, but it can never be 
disproved. The second claim will not be ques- 
tioned. I claim that the first highways which 
crossed the Blue Ridge and the AUeghanies were 
the work of the Irish Hercules — the true pine 
bender and path preparer of the new world. 

Ireland alone, from 1T90 to 1820, could have sup- 
plied the necessary labor force for opening up the 
continent. If the native population had increased 
thirty per cent, in that generation, — in other words, 
if each family averaged three children, — the whole 
native population in 1820 would be short of six 
millions, instead of nearing ten ! What proportion 
of the other four millions Ireland contributed, after 
'98 and the union, I cannot ascertain, for neither 
in British nor American ports were the statistics 
of emigration recorded before 1819. That Ireland 
did supply the hands which led Lake Erie down- 
ward to the sea, and wedded the stormy Chesa- 
peake to the gentle Delaware, and carried the roads 
of the east out to the farthest outpost of the west, 
we know from every report on our public works. I 
have said that Ireland alone could and did supply that 
indispensable element of labor. The native popu- 
lation of six millions would still have lived within 



132 



CATHOLIC HISTOHY OF AMEHICA. 



their old limit?, rather than take pick and spade, 
lodge in shanties, and ol^ev a loss. Foreign labor 
was needed : and that laV :r innst be disorganized at 
home, that it might be more readii" reorganized 
here. It shonld be cheai:'. mobile, and hardy : it 
should be sufficiently apt to pick up new habits of 
TTork, and to apprehend puickly verbal directions ; 
it should know enough of English to comprehend 
its captains. In the Irish emigration alone these 
several dispositicms were combined. It has been 
the lot of the Irish laborer to make roads for Ger- 
mans to travel on : to hll the purse in the native's 
pocket : to advance every body's fortune farther 
than his own. 

Do I conpdiain of this ? Am I ashamed of it ? 
God forbid. Honest hand labor is the most hon- 
orable eniployment of man. Every other profes- 
sion owes something to its pretensions, something 
to sleight, or shov. or the credulity of its clients. 
Of the lawyer, the doctor, the editor, the mechanic 
even, this is true : but the honest workman, who 
puts his conscience into liis — --/o ' ■ ' v ^ bit to 

the result and say, '"Thej^eis . ..mine 

it : see if I have not done every thing I under- 
took." — he can make a prouder boast, and take a 
higher moral stand, than almost any member of a 
learned profession. If the labor emigration is a 
fact true of Ireland and America for two hundred 
years, it is not peculiar to American history nor to 
the Irish race : and though it has its sad side, it has 
also its halo of adory. You who make the term 



HISTORICAL BELATIOXS. 



133 



foreigiw a reproach to us. — vrlio are you? Cliil- 
dren or grandchildren of foreigners. And we, — - 
who are we ? The parentage of native generations^ 
destined to rule this continent in conjunction with 
your children's children. In one sense we are all 
foreigners to America ; European civilization is 
foreign to it ; white complexions are foreign to it ; 
the Christian religion is foreign to it. The term 
conveys no stigma to the well-informed mind. The 
man of reading and reflection knows that at one 
time or other it was true of all humanity — true of 
the first m.an, as it may be of the last. The history 
of our race is a history of emigration. In Asia 
Eden wns ; but beyond Eden the world lay. The 
first emigrants were that sad pair who travelled 
into the outer darkness, lighted by the glare of the 
fiery sword threatening at their backs. When 
their ears no longer caught the rustling of the trees 
of paradise, or the flow of its living waters, they 
felt themselves truly emigrants : — 

" Some natural tears they shed, but dried them soon ; 
The world was all before them, where to choose 
A place of rest, and Providence their guide.'* 

Upon what consolation did our first parents rest ? 
Upon labor and upon hope, Go forth and fill 
the earth and subdue it,^' and the promised Mes* 
siah. Since then, the story of their posterity has 
been the same. Westward with the sun they trav* 
elled from the first, keeping on earth an apparent 
parallel to his apparent course. The cities of Enoch, 



134 CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMERICA, 



Babylon, Nineveli, Tyre, Thebes, Carthage, Romej— 
what are they ? Landmarks and tidemarks of the 
endless emigration. In the days before history, in 
the mountain mists of tradition, we see the dim 
forms of pioneers and leaders, carrying their tribes 
from old homes to new homes, oyer mountains and 
across straits, and through the labyrinth of the 
primeval wilderness. All mythology is a story 
about emigrants ; and the tale did not end when 
Hercules set up his pillars at the Strait of Gades, 
and forbade his descendants to tempt the exterior 
ocean. In the dawn of classic light we see man- 
kind with darkened and troubled brows, gazing out 
to the forbidden west as they lean against those 
pillars. The fearless Phoenician came, and swept 
by without slacking sail or heeding Hercules ; he 
went, and came, and went, disenchanting mankind 
of their fears. The Romans 'talked of having 
reached the earth^s ultima : and so Europe rested 
for ages, in full belief of the Roman geography. 
At last Columbus rose, that inspired sailor, who, 
dedicating his ship and himself to the protection 
of the Blessed Virgin, launched fearlessly into the 
undiscovered sea, and introduced the new world to 
the acquaintance of the old. After Columbus we 
came, borne onward by the destiny of humanity, in 
obedience to the primitive charter of our race — 
" Go forth and fill the earth and subdue it ; and in 
the sweat of your brow you shall earn your bread." 

The Irish emigrant stands on this high ground ; 
and, so standing, he can look the past fearlessly in 



HISTORICAL RELATIONS. 



135 



the face. He has no cause to be ashamed of his 
predecessors liere. If they founded no exclusive 
JYew Ireland^ the blood of no exterminated Indian 
tribe rises in judgment against them ; if they were 
sole proprietors of no province, neither have they 
to answer for enslaving the African. They were 
here, subordinates in power, but principals in labor. 
They could say, and we may say for them, that in no 
department of American development have the Irish 
mind and the Irish arm been unfelt. We have 
given the Union, in this century, its greatest specu- 
lative and its greatest practical statesman — John 0. 
Calhoun and Andrew Jackson ; we have given the 
Union two vice presidents, nine signers of the Dec- 
laration of Independence, six authors of the Con- 
stitution, ten major generals to its army, and six 
commodores to its navy. In science, in authorship, 
in oratory we have been represented, as well as in 
digging, and delving, and carrying the hod. We 
can look History in the face ; and, putting our hands 
upon any part of the fabric of the state, we can say, 
as a people, This was partly our work. 

Such, as I read the record, are the historical 
relations of Ireland and America. With God for 
our guide, and our own labor for our dependence, we 
may defy the designs of faction, and look as fear- 
lessly to the future as proudly to the past. 



H. "ACTUAL RELATIOXS. 



Ox the last eyening I had the honor to stand in 
this place, I showed, I believe conclusively, that the 
Irish emigration was no new fact in American his- 
tory ; that it was as old as the planting of white 
population in this country : that on the historic 
account between Ireland and America, down to the 
year 1820, there was an apparent balance — and I 
believe a real one — due from this new nation to 
that ancient island. At the same time I disclaimed 
altogether the intention of raising a claim to na- 
tional gratitude on that historic basis, I strove 
to bring out the facts partly as a set-off to present 
injustice, but mainly as a lesson, important for your 
native-born children and mine to learn, 

I propose to-night, ladies and gentlemen, with 
your indulgence, to consider the actual relations 
subsisting in our generation between the land of 
our birth (of mine at least) and this new land of 
our adoption. I fear you may find the subject a 
dry one ; but I trust to the natural interest we all 
feel in our own times and fortunes to enable me to 
carry you through to the end of the argument. 

I find these actual relations open to four divisions* 

(136) 



ACTUAL EELATIOXS. 



137 



1. That wliicli regards the bare statistics of popu- 
lation. 2. That Tvhich concerns American com- 
merce and deyelopment. 3. The political ; and, 4. 
The religious relations of America and Ireland. 

We have each Irish and American decennial 
census since 1820, and the recent British and Amer- 
ican Emigrant Commissioners' reports, to help us in 
our inquiry into the movement of population be- 
tween the countries. In 1821 Ireland contained 
six million six hundred eighty-seven thousand three 
hundred and six souls. In 1841 eight million one 
hundred seventy-five thousand one hundred and 
fifty-four souls, or a home increase of less than 
twenty-five per cent. ; that is to say, less than an 
average of five children to two families. In 1851 
the same country had fallen back to six million 
five hundred fifty-one thousand nine hundred and 
seventy souls, or less than it contained thirty years 
before. The increase of one entire generation was 
thus lost to that afflicted land. What might that 
increase be ? If it were in the ratio of the increase 
in the thirty years before 1820, — which included a 
sanguinary civil war and two years of famine, — it 
ought to have been at least thirty-three per cent., 
giving in 1850 a total of ten million instead of six 
and a half ! 

Here are, between the years 1820 and '50, three 
million and a half of the Irish people to be ac- 
counted for. If we allow the cholera of 1832 and 
the famine of 1847 to have swept away a million 
by death, (and a million is a large allowance.) there 
12 ^ 



138 



CATHOLIC EISTOr.Y OF AMERICA. 



still remain two miHion five liundrecl tliOTisand 
souls to be a:oC'iT":^ed for. !i:C'5t of -vrliom are be- 
lieved to be : : : : :::: ^: iii America. 

In the decr-dc irc-m liiij i j 1^3C'. the British gov- 
ernment vas active in depleting the Irish popula- 
tion. They gave every encouragement, including a 
pecuniary bonus, to e:v:^r:.vt- for their ovn colonies 
— the Cape of Good Hope. Sydney, and Canada. In 
those ten vecirs the vrhole u'overnrnental emigration 
from v'hut is yarvaa^tlr cah:d "the ITnit-d King- 
doDi" was one hundred fifty-four thousand tvro hun- 
dred and ninc^"^--:^;v -cul-: in vv? ];V'v: daa ?va:a M:>eri- 
od. dovrn to 1:— 1\ :t 'vas tv-.j lv:mm :^ -a-v>::Ty-^-Ten 
thousand six hundred and ninety-^ix souls : and in 
the la-t the ivrraast iaCtafiitg Australia, vras du- 
plicate. Taking thcrC vaaae^ tt-gether. vre have 
two thirds of a milhtn :C aati„aants who. under 
the auspices of the British government, left British 
ports bet^-aan the vears 1^30 and Itat' to settle in 
British dty: tnd-ta. has. If of th:^ total one half 
were Iri^h, -vtald still have tvro mhlicm two 
hundred thousand of their 'avtatavmen to locate 
somewhere on th? a' ; A: ■ " ' v_> vam'ter is not. I 

imagine, very faa Ltv-taihution of 

Ireland to the American population within the pres- 
ent generation.* 

* In their report for 18-54, the British commissioners of emigrafioii 
state that the total number who hare emigrated in the thirty-nine 
years between ISlo and 1853, inclusive, has been three million seven hun- 
dred Jiinety-three thousand five hundred and twenty-nine ; but that of 
these two nullion one hundred twentj -one thousand three hundred and 



ACTUAL RELATIONS. 



139 



Speaking of population, sliould clistinguisli the 
kind as well as the quantity. On inquiry from per- 
sons long engaged in the passenger trade, I have 
been invariably told that four fifths of all those 
emigrating from Ireland are adults. This modifies 
essentially all after calculations in relation to that 
class. In our native population, the proportion of 
adults to minors is, from tlie short average of human 
life, not more than one third. Hence, so far as 
adult labor and service are involved, two million 
and a half of emigrants yield as many hands as six 
million of the native population. This is an im- 
portant consideration, and I will ask you to bear it 
in mind hereafter. 

This is a people already reared, each individual 
of which, if born here, would have consumed a 
thousand dollars^ worth of food, clothing, and other 
necessaries before he or she could have become a 
maker of money. The first cost 6f a million of 
people to this state of society must be fully a thou- 
sand million of dollars between infancy and adult 
age ; and to that amount, and far more than that, 
our adult emigration has enriched the United States. 
For the five years ending in ^53, there are registered 
of Irish emigrants to this country alone above a 
million, of whom, according to my informants in 

seventy-three, or more than eleven twentieths, have emigrated during 
the seven years ending on the 31st of December, 18-53. Xow, of this total, 
at least two thirds, over two million five hundred thousand, were Irish, 
of whom the greater part came to the United States — a strong proof 
of the correctness of the calculation in the text. 



140 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



the passenger trade, four fifths, or eight hundred 
thousand, were adults. We haye been accustomed 
to a complaint from certain quarters that this is a 
pauper emigration — that this country is overrun 
with foreign paupers. What are the facts? The 
commutation tax, which must be paid on every for- 
eigner, adult or infant, is two dollars per head for 
young and old, and amounted last year to upwards 
of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars on emi- 
grants from British ports alone, and must have been 
as much more on the German emigration. Now, 
the total number of persons born abroad, — of all 
nationalities, — who received alms in any or all our 
states during last year, was sixty-eight thousand, 
being less than ten per cent, of the whole number 
arrived ; thus giving for the expense of each — the 
commutation tax being so set apart according to 
law — not less than twenty- two dollars a head — an 
amount, it is needless to say, far more than suf- 
ficient to save the native public from any poor tax 
specially levied on account of emigrants.^ 

Another distinction to be considered is, that gen- 

* I deny, however, that the sixty-eight thousand foreigners " en- 
tered as receiving relief in our poorhouses, in 1853, can all be properly 
called emigrants. A large proportion of them have spent years here, 
been naturalized, been worked out in the service of the commonwealth. 
On this and similar topics there is a very free and easy alternation of 
terms in vogue. The brave soldier is an American ; the same soldier, 
if he deserts, is " a foreigner ; " the gallant fireman or seaman is a 
fellow-citizen ; but his brother, if detected in any thing disgraceful, 
becomes suddenly "a foreigner." Against this unfair substitution of 
terms common honesty cries out. 



ACTUAL EELATIONS. 



141 



erally tlie European emigrants who come here are ro- 
bust, inured to physical labor, and contented to keep 
at it. There are very few of them afflicted with dys- 
pepsia, or debility, or impotency. They are not 
given to shout for a doctor if their little fingers 
ache, nor to shrink from frost or fire, mud or mad- 
der. Whether they settle on new lands or encamp 
upon public works, they must pay their way from the 
beginning. There is no bankruptcy among them ; 
the emigrant cannot fail while his health holds 
good ; he expends as he earns ; his cash is the brisk- 
est in circulation — for it no sooner passes into his 
possession than it is partitioned among all who live 
by trading in the necessaries of life. 

In the period of which we have been speaking, 
while Ireland lost one third of all her people, this 
country had advanced from less than ten million 
to more than twenty-three ! Supposing the native 
family to average three children, the natural in- 
crease would have reached but to fifteen, leaving 
eight million to be otherwise accounted for. The 
census of 1850 furnishes no solution of this prob- 
lem ; but the census of 1850 is no authority. It 
would have the world believe that there are now 
but two million of men of foreign birth in this re- 
public ; whereas the statistics of emigration show 
that for the last ten years alone more than that 
number of Irish people landed on these shores. 
Were there no foreigners here before 1840 ? Are 
there no French, no Italians ? Are not the Germans 
and Scandinavians, taken together, more numerous 



142 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF A3iEKICA. 



Still tliaii the Irish ? And yet this census "would 
haT^ the world believe there are but two million of 
foreigners altogether in the United States ! If it 
had set thern down at six million of all nationali- 
ties, it would have been nearer the mark. 

As to the effects of emigration on American com- 
merce and internal development, there is no need 
for argument, though there is ample material for 
illustraiion. Xo one denies that to the influx of 
cheap labor, during the last thirty years, the United 
States owe their four thousand miles of canal and 
fourteen thousand miles of railroad. Xo one de- 
nies that the states vrhich encouraged emigration, 
and pushed forward public works, are the states 
which now feed and clothe the country. Ohio, In- 
diana, and Illinois, thirty years ago, were second 
or third-class states ; now they stand next after 
Xew York and Pennsylvania, before Massachusetts 
and Maryland, and beside old Virginia. The value 
of foreign la;jor to the north-west, the last thirty 
years, defies computation. Last year it was shown 
by Chicago papers that the employment of ten thou- 
sand men for one year, on the Illinois Central Eail- 
road, had enhanced the value of the public lands in 
that state seventeen million dollars — a fact from 
which the curious may calculate of how much value 
a million of men, laboring for thirty years for the 
state and themselves, may have been. This," said 
Benjamin Franklin nearly a century since, is a 
country of labor : and such," said Matthew Cary 
forty years ago, it remains till this day." Another 



ACTUAL EELATIOXS 



143 



liigh authority in political economy. Adam Smith, 
defines " the annual lahor of every nation to be 
the fund, ^vhich originally supplies it with all the 
conveniences and necessaries of life." If Tve apply 
these maxims to our subject, they will help us to 
some sound, conclusions. This vrhole continent 
maVj in fact, be considered as the ravr material 
out of which the nation itself was. a few years ago, 
to be manufactured : the factors were both natives 
and emigrants ; and as roads, bridges, canals, and 
crops must precede the full triumph of civilization 
over barrenness, so here, as every where else since 
the world began, the foreigner has been the civilizer, 
Compar-e the present value to society and the world 
of an acre of Ohio wheat land with the utter use- 
lessness of that same acre when the Aiiami Indian 
had his wigwam there, and you will see how real 
and how general a benefactor to his race the foreign 
laborer has been. In that delightful harmony of 
interests which, however often deranged by human 
perversity, does still pervade the world, the culti- 
vation of a new territory on any side of the earth 
affects every inhabited region. The shower that 
falls on the Alleghanies gladdens the hearts of men 
beside the Clyde ; and the farmer in Indiana be- 
comes the feeder of the mechanic in Manchester. 

I am not able to say what proportion of the pur- 
chasers of our public lands, during the last few 
years, were men of foreign birth ; but I will, for 
argument's sake, suppose it to be one fourth. From 
1833 to 1850 there were some seventy-seven million 



lii Catholic eistoey of ameeica. 

acres sold for about one hundred miUion dol- 
lars. If foreigners bonght a fonrth part, they had 
in s:z:ee:i years paid into the United State? neas- 
' nve million dollars, " - 

li:.: c : c half a year. They had ; : t : ot- 



ters of some twenty million acre? :: ; ; : n 
TrMch they had paid into the several sia:rS :::e taxes 
imposed by each: which, in "ir ag-oirOfoe n;-: 
cimoimt to some million? ^nn' j.y.oon. Tit" na"e 

incalc'.:/.a:"le anion:, e?;: Tiial'-T since the reoeal of 
the Briii?h corn n "? :he:- have koo: ahia: a 
larger tonnage on :he lake? :han :he vrhihe o: :he 
foreign trade yet employs. 

Manufacturing had o nil ted no less than agricul- 
ture bv enisration. A-, a .on 2° the Merrimac and 

bowels of the e:::h, :"n o,h PennsylTania. Ikin:i?? 
and Michiaan, 7:0 ni-r: i: every wheoe. "VT^ ;::.Te 
the ?:a::?:in i: 000 ■^:::.-:.i::.ciTn'es fir n'h anl ~e 
find :r:n :h-in :ho: ne i:,.n:ih niniyed vra? ra:tii 
at five hundred aal :hn :v nikin n kars; that the 
raw material used na? vakj^ea a: nve hundred and 
fifty million ; and the annual product at ten hundred 
and twenty million. The number of hands ^innloyed 
exceeded a million, and their aggregate vr: g^^^ ~n e 
two hundred and forty million dollars, k:: ne 
suppose again, for the sake of argument, th: : evin 
one fourth of these hands were foreign " i:a , dry 
then contributed a fourth to the annual i i a. 

or above two hundred and fifty mik . s 



ACTUAL RELATIONS. 



145 



per annum ; at the same time tliey earn and expend 
a fourth of the aggregate wages, or sixty million : 
thus contributing to the commonwealth, in this one 
department of labor, not less than three hundred 
million per annum. 

It appears that no American interest gains so 
directly by emigration as the ocean shipping. I 
assert that the passenger trade, more than any other, 
has built up the merchant marine of Xew York. 
To this trade your Marshalls. jlinturns, Grinnells, 
Collinses, and Thompsons owe their fleets of packet 
ships. Let us suppose the passenger trade had not 
existed. I ask any man, who has any knowledge 
of the subject, if he believes even one of our great 
Liverpool lines would have jvAd, If, like the ships 
which carry British subjects out to Australia, our 
ships had to return in ballast, or with quarter freight, 
after discharging their cotton or flour, would it pay ? 
I have no hesitation in saying it can be proved that 
our merchant marine has doubled its tonnage since 
1836, mainly because it was always certain of a 
speedy home freight on the other side of the Atlantic. 

Take the a^verage number of passengers brought 
out by a packet ship to be four hundred and fifty. 
The prices have ranged, the last few seasons, from 
fifteen to twenty-five dollars per head. Such a ship 
will make three trips per year ; and deducting, say 
ten per cent,, the entire passage money goes to the 
owners. On this calculation, such a ship will av- 
erage for her owners in twelve months, on passen- 
gers alone, twenty thousand dollars — more than 
13 



146 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMEEICA. 



the interest on her first cost and her whole running 
expenses combined. We sometimes hear our friends 
in the shipping business grumbling, and declaring 
that the passenger business don't pay/^ In future, 
to quote a sea proverb, ''they may tell that to the 
marines/^ If, to=day, the United States is the sec- 
ond commercial power in the world, it is certain 
she owes that position as much to the immense emi- 
gration of Irish, all embarked in her shipping, as 
to any other single cause. 

Let me reverse the picture, and inquire if Ireland 
has benefited commercially as well as America. 
Alas ! no. These fleets that crowd the Atlantic 
pass by the Irish coast as if it were infected. They 
enter no Irish harbor except when beaten in by 
angry storms. They compel the Irish peasantry to 
meet them on British soil, to transship themselves at 
the Mersey. Ireland has not had the consolation^ 
in parting with her children, of placing them with 
her own hands under their new flag. Some years 
ago, in this city, you may remember the abortive 
efforts made to establish a line of steamships be- 
tween New York and Galway ; you may remem- 
ber the tricks played on us by Wagstaff and Bar- 
num, and the fate of the Yiceroy, cast away on 
the coast of Nova Scotia. Explain it as we may, 
by British intrigue, force of habit, or shortness of 
sight, America has left Ireland as a country out of 
her commercial charts, while Ireland has been 
almost exhausted to increase production in America. 
Do not suppose that I complain of this. I do not. 



ACTUAL RELATIONS. 



147 



blame only the Irish in Ireland and the Irish in 
America, who have not had practical patriotism 
enough to establish direct intercourse between them- 
selves since their separation. 

Though the drafts of America on Irish popula- 
tion have not served Ireland commercially, but the 
contrary, I am sure such was never the design of 
any party in this republic. The political sympathy 
of this people has always been with the land of 
Burke and O'Connell, and, notwithstanding recent 
signs of national change, I do believe is with her 
still. In the emancipation struggle ending in 1829, 
in the repeal agitation of 1843, in the projected in- 
surrection of 1848, the heart of America was on the 
side of Ireland. One proof of this, open to no ex- 
ception, was given during the famine of 1846-7, 
when the Jamestown and Macedonian, freighted 
with charity and manned by mercy, carried the 
starry flag mto the darkness and desolation of the 
Irish night. That event never shall be forgotten 
by the Irish heart. 

Besides the national sympathy which great occa- 
sions only can call out, there has been another bond 
of brotherhood — the constant family care of the 
emigrants themselves for those they left behind. 
As men escaping to a rock throw ropes to those 
still on a wreck, so, since the famine especially, the 
Irish here have worked, not for themselves alone, 
but for their kindred left behind. e have the re- 
cent returns of the British Parliamentary Commis- 
sioners for the monetary remittances of this class, 



148 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMERICA. 



Trliicli, ill '43, were four liuiiclred and sixty thou- 
sand pounds ; in '49, fire hundred andfortv thousand 
pounds ; in "50, nine hundred and fifty-seven thou- 
sand pounds ; in '51, nine hundred and ninety thou- 
sand pounds ; in '52, one million four hundred and 
four thousand pounds ; and in '58, one million four 
hundred and thirty-nine thousand pounds : or in all, 
during the five years previous to the present, a total 
of more than twenty-eight miUion dollars. And this 
only includes the money orders payable in Ireland 
or England ; it does not include the price of passages 
paid at New York for persons emigrating, nor remit- 
tances by hand, nor enclosures of cash. If we esti- 
mate these other contributions at one third the 
amount of the money orders, we have thirty-seven 
million dollars earned for Ireland by her emigrants 
during the last five years — a fact unprecedented in 
the relations of colonies and mother countries. 

Not only has the private generosity of the Irish 
here been beyond parallel, but their liberality to 
institutions of religion and learning in their native 
land has been beyond praise. There has been 
hardly a church built in Ireland the past few years 
to which there were not contributions from Amer- 
ica. The new university, about to be opened at 
Dublin on St. Malachy's feast, has received its 
largest endowment from the children of the exodus ; 
and the new Cathedral Church of Armagh — of 
Armagh, the city of St. Patrick ! — has been, or will 
be, equally their debtor. Though Ireland has not 
yet gained commercially or politically by her rela- 



ACTUAL EELATIONS. 



149 



tioiis with. America, there is every reason to hope 
that, socially, she may hereafter gain much by the 
enlarged means and better position of her generous 
and unforgetful children in the new world. 

I have shown the balance of material gain in 
numbers, in development, and in commerce to be, 
up to the present, in favor of this country. Let me 
add, that the moral and religious gain has been also 
great to the republic. By the census of 1850, the 
whole number of what are called "communicants^' 
of all our churches does not exceed six million^ of 
whom within a fraction of two million are set 
down as Roman Catholics. If these statistics are 
any thing near the mark, one third of all the pro- 
fessed believers in Christianity in this republic are 
Catholics. Even if men do not regard this fact 
with Catholic eyes, they cannot in reason deny that 
religion is necessary for us all ; that, especially 
where the civil power is weak, the moral force 
ought to be strong ; that the strength of moral 
force lies in exact dogmas and positive principles ; 
that, therefore, whatever occasion has added two 
million of positive believers to the population of 
this republic, has conferred on it a benefit and a 
blessing, "better than gold — yea, than fine gold.'' 
Looking at it merely as a social agent, the church 
in America is of the utmost importance. To her 
appertains the science of theology — the soul that 
originally informed the framework of our civiliza- 
tion. Her doctrine is a system within which the 
grandest intellects have found ample range ; her 
13* 



150 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



spirit is one of true progress and real conservatism ; 
one wMcli looks to truth, and not to popularity ; to 
all time, and not to the passion or fashion of the 
hour. As a mistress of philosophy, as a bulwark of 
order, as a stay of law, the Catholic church is, so- 
cially, the most important of all religious institu- 
tions to the peace and harmony of this confederation. 
Its silent power attracts to it all studious minds ; 
and, by attraction or repulsion, its presence is felt in 
every pulse and at every pore of American society. 

To us Catholics it is much more than a great 
social institution. It is the pillar and ground of 
truth. It is the work of God, and partakes of the 
attributes of its Author. Its decrees are justice 
itself, its mercy inexhaustible, its love inexpressible, 
its glory incomprehensible. All other institutions 
which exist on earth the soul of man can fathom 
without fear ; but this divine foundation is rooted 
in the eternal tides ; and he who seeks with his 
paltry plummet to fathom them, seeks confusion and 
his own shame. It partakes, even in space, of the 
magnificence of its Maker. The morning sun, as he 
steps forth out of his chamber in the east, salutes it 
first of earthly objects ; and the noonday sun looks 
down and cries, Lo, it is here also ! " and the 
evening sun, as he passes away into the farthest 
west, lingers a while upon its turrets, and pays a 
parting visit to its altars. 

To us it is the church of our fathers, the church 
of our exile, the clmrch of our children. It is 
poetry, it is history, it is art, it is society, it is truth 



ACTUAL HELATIOXS, 



151 



itself. No vTOiider. then, that every attack upon it 
sounds in cur ears as a profanation : no vroncler avo 
should prefer to hear every wrong the passions of 
the mob can plan or execute rather than for one 
moment to doubt or deny that holy church. 

To others of our felioTv-citizens. viiat \ve so honor 
is detestable : what we so love to contemplate is to 
them an eyesore and an ulcer : what we venerate as 
immaculate they stigmatize as adulterous. It is 
very certain that such opposite beliefs cannot co- 
exist without collision. There will be. there must 
be, collisions. There is only one way to avoid 
them — for either party to affect a dishonest indif- 
ference to dogma, a criminal impartirJity between 
truth and falsehood. This, I trust, neither of us 
shall do. But then, how can we avoid coming into 
collision with our fellow-citizens? I repeat, we 
cannot always avoid it, Xo manly man, not to 
say sincere Christian, can pass through the world 
without conflicts of opinion and belief. From boy- 
hood to old age we all have such battles to fight ; 
but there is no necessity among men, members of 
the same commonwealth, that they should be phys- 
ical battles. So long as we discharge our duties to 
the state, vrho has any right to arraign us in the 
name of the state ? Neither has the state itself any 
right to arraign us in the name of religion : for the 
American state is of no religion. As to our public 
conduct, we challenge inquiry and comparison : as 
to our private conscience, we permit no human 
power to sit as umpire there, YCe shall worship, 



152 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



and pray, and teacli our children, and choose our 
translation of the Scriptures, and endow our church, 
as conscience dictates : and not all the forces of 
earth and hell combined can compel us to the con- 
trary. 

To those others who seem disposed at present to 
try the experiment of a popular persecution of 
Catholics, if the voice of reason still could reach 
them, I would say, Go down Chatham Street.^ Go 
down Chatham Street, and observe its Jewish in- 
habitants. There is a race which has stood the per- 
secutions of eighteen centuries ; yet their numbers 
to-day are said to be the same they were at their 
dispersion, and half the thrones of the world are 
their mortgaged chattels. Has persecution con- 
verted the Jew? And is the Christian, with so 
many additional sources of spiritual strength, — is 
he likely to yield before it? 

Look to a more modern instance. For three 
hundred years the exclusively Protestant govern- 
ment of Great Britain persecuted the Irish, Scotch, 
and English Catholics. It stripped them naked of 
every right ; it confiscated their lands, seized their 
churches, closed their schools, treated them as out- 
laws in their own land. With what result ? After 
three hundred years of an experiment, carried on 
with a diabolical tenacity and skill, the rusted 
chains gave way ; their greatest soldier declared 

* In these and the previous discourses, some local allusions T^ill be 
understood by remembering that they were originally delivered in 
New York. 



ACTUAL EELATIOXSo 



153 



tlie sword could not avail ; their subtlest statesman 
renounced all hope in intrigue or intimidation. So, 
in the year 1829, a strong man from the west, by 
name O'Connell, pushed apart the doors of the Brit- 
ish senate, and ushered the Catholics of that empire 
into their long-Ta<2ant seats. 

"What do the present conspirators against their 
Catholic fellow-citizens hope to gain by persecu- 
tion ? Did the burning of the Philadelphia churches 
injure it in that city ? Will the sack and sacrilege 
of Newark injure most — those who committed, or 
those who suffered, the wrong ? Will that dreadful 
scene the other night at Ellsworth change the tenets 
of any Catholic? That was a scene to stir the 
most lukewarm blood, when a hundred armed ruf- 
fians stole in the darkness of midnight upon the 
retreat of a poor Svriss priest, stripped him beneath 
the northern sky, and committed their nameless out- 
rages upon his defenceless person. I say, no man 
of any creed can think of such an outrage without 
feeling his blood boil, and his arm erect itself to 
strike the ferocious midnight rabble down. 

The Irish Catholics in America have been chiefly 
instrumental in bringing this unpopular religion into 
the country, and they must be prepared for the con- 
sequences. They st-and here, in their highest rela- 
tion to the destiny of America, as church builders, - 
They have paid back the money of the Puritan by 
acclimating the cross in the atmosphere of the Pu- 
ritan. They have made it known that the 2oth of 
December is Christmas d^j, and that God is to be 



154 CATHOLIC HISTOKY OF AMERICA. 



honored in liis saints. They have practically brought 
to the American mind the idea that marriage is a 
holy sacrament, not a civil contract. In their 
small catechism, they have introduced the profound- 
est system of Christian philosophy. All this they 
have done out of their poverty, but not without ex- 
citing derision, scorn, envy, jealousy, and fear — the 
whole tribe of the meaner passions of human na- 
ture. A tree of that size does not lift itself aloft 
without catching the gale, nor strike its strong 
roots round it without disturbing the earth. 

Contemporaneously with their religious activity 
they have pushed their personal fortunes, becoming 
citizens, and insisting on their civil rights. This 
people, so long oppressed at home, show some bold- 
ness here in pretending to any political existence. 
Some Americans take offence at their presumption 
in this respect — " they were a subject class in Great 
Britain, and ought to be so here ; " it is very well 
for them to be permitted to eat their pudding in 
peace ; to claim equality is audacious. Tell us, ye 
professors of equality, ye apostles of progress, is 
this your progress, is this your equality? If so, 
give me the undisguised tyrant, who acts as he 
speaks, and speaks before he strikes, instead of such 
mobs as would fain make themselves our masters. 

Here I may well close. Whoever lives to see 
the end of this century may be in a position to fin- 
ish the subject. 



DOCUMENTS ILLUSTEATIYE 

OF THE 

CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



(155) 



APPENDIX. 



NO. L 

THE WILL OF CHRISTOPHER COLrMBUS. 

[For the follomng translation of this characteristic document, we are 
indebted to Washington Irving's Life of Columbus^ yoI. iii. p. 444, 
Putnam's (Xew York) edition, 1849.] 

In tlie name of tlie Most Holy Trinity, who inspired 
me with the idea, and afterwards made it perfectly clear 
to me, that I could navigate and go to the Indies from 
Spain, by traversing the ocean westwardly ; which I com- 
municated to the king, Don Ferdinand, and to the queen. 
Dona Isabella, our sovereigns ; and they were pleased to 
furnish me the necessary equipment of men and ships, and 
to make me their admiral over the said ocean, in all parts 
lying to the west of an imaginary line, drawn from pole to 
pole, a hundred leagues west of the Cape de Verd and 
Azore Islands ; also appointing me their viceroy and gov- 
ernor over all continents and islands that I might discover 
beyond the said line westwardly, with the right of being 
IJL ' (157) 



158 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



succeeded in the said offices by my eldest son and his heirs . 
forever ; and a grant of the tenth part of all things found 
in the said jurisdiction; and of all rents and revenues 
arising from it ; and the eighth of all the lands and every 
thing else, together with the salary corresponding to my 
rank of admiral, viceroy, and governor, and all other emol- 
uments accruing thereto, as is more fully expressed in the 
title and agreement sanctioned by their highnesses. 

And it pleased the Lord Almighty that in the year 
1492 I should discover the continent of the Indies and 
many islands, among them Hispaniola, which the Indians 
call Ayte, and the Monicongos, Cipango. I then returned 
to Castile to their highnesses, who approved of my under- 
taking a second enterprise for further discoveries and set- 
tlements ; and the Lord gave me victory over the Island 
of Hispaniola, which extends six hundred leagues, and I 
conquered it and made it tributary; and I discovered 
many islands inhabited by cannibals, and seven hundred 
to the west of Hispaniola, among which is Jamaica, which 
we call Santiago, and three hundred and thirty-three 
leagues of continent from south to west, besides a hundred 
and seven to the north, which I discovered in my first 
voyage, together with many islands, as may more clearly 
be seen by my letters, memorials, and maritime charts. 
And as we hope in God that before long a good and great 
revenue will be derived from the above islands and conti- 
nent, of which, for the reasons aforesaid, belong to me the 
tenth and the eighth, with the salaries and emoluments 
specified above ; and considering that we are mortal, and 
that it is proper for every one to settle his affairs, and to 
leave declared to his heirs and successors the property he 
possesses or may have a right to : Wherefore I have con- 



APPENDIX. 



159 



eluded to create an entailed estate (mayorazgo) out of the 
said eighth of the lands, places, and revenues, in the man- 
ner which I now proceed to state. 

In the first place, I am to be succeeded by Don Diego, 
my son, who in case of death without children is to be suc- 
ceeded by my other son Ferdinand ; and should God dis- 
pose of him also without leaving children, and without my 
having any other son, then my brother Don Bartholomew 
is to succeed > and after him his eldest son ; and if God 
should dispose of him without heu's, he shall be succeeded 
by his sons from one to another forever ; or, in the failure 
of a son, to be succeeded by Don Ferdinand, after the 
same manner, from son to son successively, or in then' 
place by my brothers Bartholomew and Diego. And 
should it please the Lord that the estate, after having con- 
tinued for some time in the line of any of the above suc- 
cessors, should stand in need of an immediate and lawful 
male heir, the succession shall then devolve to the nearest 
relation, being a man of legitimate birth, and bearing the 
name of Columbus, derived from his father and his ances- 
tors. This entailed estate shall in no wise be inherited by 
a woman, except in case that no male is to be found, either 
in this or any other quarter of the world, of my real 
lineage, whose name, as well as that of his ancestors, shall 
have always been Columbus. In such an event, (which 
may God forefend !) then the female of legitimate birth, most 
nearly related to the preceding possessor of the estate, 
shall succeed to it ; and this is to be under the conditions 
herein stipulated at foot, which must be understood to ex- 
tend as well to Don Diego, my son, as to the aforesaid and 
their heirs, every one of them, to be fulfilled by them ; and 
failing to do so, they are to be deprived of the succession, 



160 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



for not liaving complied with what shall herein be ex- 
pressed, anci the estate to pass to the person most nearly 
related to the one who held the right ; and the person thus 
succeeding shall in like manner forfeit the estate, should 
he also fail to comply with said conditions ; and another 
.i^erson, the nearest of mj lineage, shall succeed, provided 
he abide hj them, so that they may be observed forever in 
the form prescribed. This forfeiture is not to be incurred 
for triHing matters, originating in lavrsuits, but in impor- 
tant cases, when the glory of God, or my oy>m, or that of 
my family may be concerned, which supposes a perfect 
fulfilment of all the things hereby ordained ; all which 
I recommend to the courts of justice. And I supplicate 
his holiness, who now is, and those that may succeed in 
the holy church, that if it should happen that this my will 
and testament has need of his holy order and command for 
its fulfilment, that such order be issued in virtue of obe- 
dience, and under penalty of excommunication, and that 
it shall not be in any wise disfigured. And I also i^ray 
the king and queen, our sovereigns, and their eldest born, 
Prince Don Juan, our lord, and their successors, for the 
sake of the services I have done them, and because it is 
just, that it may please them not to permit this my will 
and constitution of my entailed estate to be any way altered, 
but to leave it in the form and manner which I have 
ordained, forever, for the greater glory of the Almighty, 
and that it may be the root and basis of my lineage, and a 
memento of the services I have rendered their highnesses ; 
that, being born in Genoa, I came over to serve them in 
Castile, and discovered to the west of Terra Firma the 
Indies and islands before mentioned. I accordingly pray 
their highnesses to order that this my privilege and testa- 



APPEXDIX. 



161 



ment be held yalid, and be executed SLimmarily and ^vith- 
out any opposition or demur, according to the letter. I 
also pray the grandees of the realm and the lords of the 
council, and all others haying administration of justice, to 
be pleased not to suffer this my yrill and testament to be 
of no ayail, but to cause it to be fullilled as by me ordained ; 
it being just that a noble, who has seryed the king and 
queen and the kingdom, should be respected in the dispo- 
sition of his estate by will, testament, institution of entail 
or inheritance, and that the same be not infringed either 
in whole or in part. 

In the first place, my son Don Diego, and all my suc- 
cessors and descendants, as well as my brothers Bartholo- 
mew and Diego, shall bear my arms, such as I shall leaye 
them after my days, yrithout inserting any thing else in 
them ; and they shall be their seal to seal withal. Don 
Diego my son, or any other v;ho may inherit this estate, 
on coming into possession of the inheritance, shall sign 
with the signature which I now make use of, which is an 
X with an S oyer it, and an M with a Roman A oyer it, 
and oyer that an S, and then a Greek Y, with an S oyer 
it, with its lines and points as is my custom, as may be 
seen by my signatures, of which there are many, and it 
will be seen by the present one. 

He shall only ^^ite the admiral," whateyer other 
titles the king may haye conferred on him. This is to be 
understood as respects his signature, but not the enumera- 
tion of his titles, yvdiicli he can make at full length if agree- 
able, only the signature is to be the admiral." 

The said Don Diego, or any other inheritor of this 
estate, shall possess my offices of admiral of the ocean, 
which is to the west of an imaginary line, which his high- 
14^ 



162 



CATKOLIC HISTORY OP AMERICA. 



ness ordered to be drawn, running from pole to pole a 
hundred leagues beyond tlie Azores, and as many more 
beyond the Cape de Verd Islands, over all which I was 
made, by their order, their admiral of the sea, with all 
the preeminences held by Don Henrique in the admiralty 
of Castile, and they made me their governor and viceroy 
perpetually and forever over all the islands and main- 
land discovered, or to be discovered, for myself and heirs, 
as is more fully shown by my treaty and privilege as above 
mentioned. 

Item : The said Diego, or any other inheritor of this 
estate, shall distribute the revenue which it may please 
our Lord to grant him in the following manner, under the 
above penalty : - — 

First : Of the vrhole income of this estate, now and at 
all times, and of v>diatever may be had or collected from 
it, he shall give the fourth part annually to my brother 
Don Bartholomew Columbus, Adelantado of the Indies; 
and this is to continue till he shall have acquired an income 
of a million of maravadises for his support, and for the 
services he has rendered and Vvill continue to render to 
this entailed estate ; which million he is to receive, as 
stated, every year, if the said fourth amount to so much, 
and that he have nothing else ; but if he possess a part or 
the whole of that amount in rents, that thenceforth he shall 
not enjoy the said million, nor any part of it, except that 
he shall have in the said fourth part unto the said quantity 
of a million, if it should amount to so much ; and as much 
as he shall have of revenue beside this fourth part, what- 
ever sum of maravadises of known rent from property or 
perpetual offices, the said quantity of rent or revenue from 
property or ofhces shall be discounted, and from the said 



APPEXDIX. 



163 



million shaU be reserved ^liatever marriage portion lie 
may receive vritli any female lie may espouse ; so tliat, 
whatever lie may rvrceive in marriage with his wife, no 
deduction shall be made on that account fi'om said minion^ 
but only for whatever he may acquire, or may have, over 
and above his wife's dowry ; and when it -hall please God 
that he or his heirs and descendants shall derive from their 
property and oflices a revenue of a million arising fi'om 
rents, neither he nor his heirs shall eujoy any longer any 
thing from the said fourth part of the entailed estate, which 
shall remain with Don Diego, or whoever may inherit it. 

Item : From the revenues of the said estate, or fi'om 
any other fourth part of it, (should its amount be adeopaate 
to it.) shall be paid every year to my son Ferdinand tvro 
millions, till such time as his revenue shall amount to two 
millions, in the same form and manner as in the case of 
Bartholomew, who, as well as his heirs, are to have the 
milhon or the part that may be wanting. 

Item : The said Don Diego or Don Bartholomew shall 
make out of the said estate, for my brother Diego, such 
provision as may enable him to live decently, as he is my 
brother, to whom I assign no particular sum. as he has 
attached himself to the church, and that will be given him 
which is right : and this to be given him in a mass, and 
before any thing shall have been recei;^'ed by Ferdinand 
my son, or Bartholomew my brother, or their heirs, and 
also according to the amount of the income of the estate. 
And in case of discord, the case is to be referred to two 
of our relations, or other men of honor ; and should they 
disagree among themselves, they will choose a third person 
as arbitrator, being virtuous and not distrusted by either 
party. 



164 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMERICA. 



Item : All this revenue which I bequeath to Bartholo- 
mewj to Ferdinand, and to Diego, shall be delivered to 
and received by them as prescribed under the obligation 
of being faithful and loyal to Diego my son, or his heirs, 
they as well as their children ; and should it appear that 
they, or any of them, had proceeded against him in any 
thing touching his honor, or the prosperity of the family, 
or of the estate, either in word or deed, whereby might 
come a scandal and debasement to my family and a detri- 
ment to my estate, in that case nothing further shall be 
given to them or him from that time forward, inasmuch 
as they are always to be faithful to Diego and to his 
successors. 

Item : As it was my intention, when I first instituted 
this entailed estate, to dispose, or that my son Diego should 
dispose for me, of the tenth part of the income in favor 
of necessitous persons, as a tithe, and in commemoration 
of the almighty and eternal God, and persisting still in 
this opinion, and hoping that his high Majesty will assist 
me, and those who may inherit it, in this or the new world, 
I have resolved that the said tithe shall be paid in the 
manner following : — 

First : It is to be understood that the fourth part of the 
revenue of the estate which I have ordained and directed 
to be given to Don Bartholomew, till he have an income 
of one million, includes the tenth of the whole revenue 
of the estate ; and that as in proportion as the income of 
my brother Don Bartholomew shall increase, as it has to 
be discounted from the revenue of the fourth part of the 
entailed estate, that the said revenue shall be calculated, 
to know how much the tenth part amounts to ; and the 
part which exceeds what is necessary to make up the mil- 



APPENDIX. 



165 



lion for Don BartLolomew shall be receiTed by sucb of mj 
family as may most stand in need of it, discounting it from 
said tenth, if their income do not amount to fifty thousand 
maravadises ; and should any of these come to have an 
income to this amount, such a part shall be awarded them 
as two persons, chosen for the purpose, may determine 
alono: with Don Dies^o, or his heirs. Thus it is to be un- 
derstood that the million which I leave to Don Bartholo- 
mew comprehends the tenth of the whole revenue of the 
estate, which revenue is to be distributed among my near- 
est and most needy relations in the manner I have directed ; 
and when Don Bartholomew have an income of one mil- 
lion, and that nothing more shall be due to him on account 
of said fourth 23art, then Don Diego my son, or the person 
who may be in possession of the estate, along with the 
two other persons which I shall herein point out, shall in- 
spect the accounts, and so direct that the tenth of the 
revenue shall still continue to be paid to the most neces- 
sitous members of my family that may be found in this or 
any other quarter of the world, who shall be diligently 
sought out, and they are to be paid out of the fourth part 
from which Don Bartholomew is to derive his million ; 
which sums are to be taken into account, and deducted 
from the said tenth, which should it amount to more, the 
overplus, as it arises from the fourth part, shall be given 
to the most necessitous persons as aforesaid ; and should it 
not be sufficient, that Don Bartholomew shall have it until 
his own estate goes on increasing, leaving the said million 
in part or in the whole. 

Item : The said Don Diego my son, or whoever may be 
the inheritor, shall appoint two persons of conscience and 
authority, and most nearly related to the family, who are 



166 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



to exraniiie tlie revenue and its amount caremllvj and to 
cause the said tentli to be paid out of the fourth from 
Vnich Don Bartholomew is to receive his million, to the 
most necessitated members of my family that may be found 
here or elsewhere, whom they shall look for diligently upon 
their consciences ; and as it might happen that said Don 
Diego, or others after him, for reasous which may concern 
their ovrn welfare or the credit and support of the estate, 
may be unv^illing to miake known the full amount of the 
income, nevertheless I charge him, on his conscience, to 
pay the sum aforesaid ; and I charge them, on their souls 
and consciences, not to denounce or make it known, ex- 
cept with the consent of Don Diego or the person that 
may succeed him ; but let the above tithe be paid in the 
mamier I have directed. 

Item : In order to avoid all disputes in the choice of the 
tvro nearest relations who are to act vdth Don Diego or 
his heirs, I hereby elect Don Bartholomew my brother for 
one, and Don Fernando my son for the other ; and when 
these two shall enter upon the business, they shall choose 
tvro other persons among the most trusty and most nearly 
related, and these again shall elect tvro others when it 
shall be question of commencing the examination; and 
thus it shall be managed with diligence from one to the 
other, as well in this as in the other of government, for 
the service and glory of God and the benefit of the said 
entailed estate. 

Item : I also enjoin Diego, or any one that may inherit 
the estate, to have and maintain, in the city of Genoa, one 
person of our lineage to reside there with his wife, and 
appoint him a sufficient revenue to enable him to live de- 
cently, as a person closely connected with the family, of 



APPEXDIX. 



167 



which he is to be the root and basis in that city ; from 
which great good loay accrue to him, inasmuch as I was 
born there, and came from tli ence. 

Item ; The said Don Diego, or whoever shall inherit 
the estate, must remit in bills, or in anv other wav. all 
snch sums as lie may be able to save out of the reyenue 
of the estate, and direct purchases to be made in his name, 
or that of his heirs, in a stock in the Bank of St. George, 
-which giyes an interest of six per cent, and in secure 
money ; and this shall be devoted to the purpose I ara 
about to explain. 

Item : As it becomes every man of property to serve 
God, either personally or by means of his wealth, and as 
all moneys deposited wnth vSt. George are quite safe, and 
Genoa is a noble city, and powerful by sea, and as at the 
time that I undertook to set out upon the discovery of the 
Indies it w^as with the intention of supplicating the king 
and queen, our lords, that whatever moneys should be de- 
rived from the said Indies should be invested in the con- 
quest of Jerusalem, and as I did so supplicate them, if 
they do this, it will be well ; if not, at all events, the said 
Diego, or such person as may succeed him m this trust, to 
collect together all the money he can, and accompany the 
king our lord, should he go to the conquest of Jerusalem, 
or else go there himself with all the force he can comm^and ; 
and in pursuing tliis intention, it will please the Lord to 
assist towards the accomplishment of the plan ; and should 
he not be able to effect the conquest of the whole, no doubt he 
will achieve it in part. Let him therefore collect and make 
a fund of all his wealth in St. George of Genoa, and let 
it multiply there till such time as it may appear to him 
that something of consequence may be effected as respects 



168 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



tlie project on Jerusalem ; for T believe that, when their 
highnesses shall see that this is contemplated, thej will wish 
to reahze it themselves, or will afford him, as their servant 
and vassal, the means of doing it for them. 

Item : I charge my son Diego and my descendants, 
especially whoever may inherit this estate, which consists, 
as aforesaid, of the tenth of whatsoever may be had or 
found in the Indies, and the eighth part of the lands and 
rents, all which, together with my rights and emoluments 
as admiral, viceroy, and governor, amount to more than 
twenty -five per cent., — I say, that I require of him to em- 
ploy all this revenue, as well as his person and all the 
means in his power, in well and faithfully serving and sup- 
porting their highnesses, or their successors, even to the 
loss of life and property ; since it was then' highnesses, next 
to God, who first gave me the means of getting and achiev- 
ing this property ; although it is true I came over to these 
realms to invite them to the enterprise, and that a long 
time elapsed before any provision was made for carrying 
it into execution; which, however, is not surprising, as 
this was an undertaking of which all the world was igno- 
rant, and no one had any faith in it ; wherefore I am by 
so much the more indebted to them, as well as because 
they have since also much favored and j^romoted me. 

Item : I also require of Diego, or whomsoever may be in 
possession of the estate, that in the case of any schism 
taking place in the church of God, or that any person of 
whatever class or condition should attempt to despoil it of 
its property and honors, they hasten to offer at the feet of 
his holiness, that is, if tliey are not heretics, (which God 
forbid !) their persons, power, and wealth, for the purpose 
of suppressing such schism and preventing any spoliation 
of the honor and property of the church. 



APPENDIX. 



169 



Item : I command the said Diego, or whoever may pos- 
sess the said estate, to labor and strive for the honor, wel- 
fare, and aggrandizement of the city of Genoa, and to make 
use of all his power and means in defending and enhancing 
the good and credit of that republic in all things not con- 
trary to the service of the church of God, or the high 
dignity of our king and queen, our lords, and their suc- 
cessors. 

Item ; The said Diego, or whoever may possess or suc- 
ceed to the estate, out of the fourth part of the whole reV' 
enue, from which, as aforesaid, is to be taken the tenth, 
when Don Bartholomew or his heirs shall have saved the 
two millions, or part of them, and when the time shall 
come of making a distribution among our relations, shall 
apply and invest the said tenth in providing marriages for 
such daughters of our lineage as may requh-e it, and in 
doing all the good in their power. 

Item : "When a suitable time shall arrive, he shall order 
a church to be built in the Island of Hispaniola, and in the 
most convenient spot, to be called Santa Maria de la Con- 
cepeion ; to which is to be annexed a hospital, upon the 
best possible plan, like those of Italy and Castile, and a 
chapel erected to say mass in for the good of my soul, and 
those of my ancestors and successors with great devotion, 
since no doubt it will please the Lord to give us a sufficient 
revenue for this and the aforementioned purposes. 

Item : I also order Diego my son, or whomsoever may 
inherit after him, to spare no pains in having and main- 
taining in the Island of Hispaniola four good professors 
of theology, to the end and aim of their studying and 
laboring to convert to our holy faith the inhabitants of the 
Indies ; and in proportion as, by God's will, the revenue 
15 



170 



CxlTHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA, 



of the estate shall increase, in the same degree shall the 
number of teachers and devout increase, who are to 'strive 
to make Christians of the natives ; in attaining which, no 
expense should be thought too great. And in commem- 
oration of all that I hereby ordain, and of the foregoing, 
a monument of marble shall be erected in the said church 
of La Concepcion, in the most conspicuous place, to serve 
as a record of what I here enjoin on the said Diego, as well 
as to other persons who may look upon it ; which marble 
shall contain an inscription to the same effect. 

Item : I also require of Diego my son, and whomsoever 
may succeed him in the estate, that every time, and as 
often as he confesses, he first show this obligation, or a 
copy of it, to the confessor, praying him to read it through, 
that he may be enabled to inquire respecting its fulfilment ; 
from which will redound great good and happiness to his 
souL 

S. 

S. A. S. 
X.M.Y. 

ELALMIRANTE. 



KO. 11. 



LETTER AND BL'LL OE POPE ALEXANDER YL IN 
RELATION TO THE DISCOVERY OP AMERICA. 

[Translated from the Ecclesiastical Annals of Cardinal Baronitis^ A. D. 
1493, by Rev. M. T. Gibson, of the diocese of Boston.] 

Soon after tlie return of Columbus, a dispute arose be- 
tween the Kings of Portugal and Spain concerning the 
empire of the ocean and the new world. The King of 
Portugal claimed the islands discovered by Columbus ; but 
the King of Spain denied that he had any claim whatever 
on them. Pope Alexander YL decided this dispute in fa- 
vor of the latter, and asserted, by many and by ample 
diplomas, the right and empire of the new" world to Fer- 
dinand, and gave him the same prerogatives the popes 
had granted to the kings of Portugal over the western 
shores of Africa, Guinea, and the gold mines. 

To our dearest son in Christy Ferdinand^ King, and to 
our dearest doMghter in Christ. Isabella^ Queen, of Castile 
Leon, Arragon, and Granada : Most illustrious health, S^c, 

The sincerity of your great devotion, and the perfect 
faith with which you reverence us and the Roman church, 
have richly deserved that we grant you those things by 
which you may be able to prosecute your holy and praise- 

(171) 



172 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF A^JEFJCA. 



worthy designs, and the undertaking you have comraencedj 

of search!;:: : an 1 i:::k:iown islands and continents, 

with mor ' : : r manner, for the honor of 

Ahnigliiy C-ro :. - ' : ; : of the Christian empire, 
and exulrarion oi ihc L ::-::-L laith. 

Hence ^Ye this day ^iv . grant, and assign all ?jid 
each island and continent, remote and unknovrn, towards 
the west, situated in the sea and ocean, discovered or to 
be discovered by you. or persons sent by you, at great 
labor, danger, ani expense, which are not under the actual 
temporal dominion of any Christian master, A\'ith all their 
domains, cities, ports, towns, villages, right and jurisdic- 
tion to you. and your heirs and successors, kings of Castile 
and Leon, forever, by our /notu propria^ certain knowledge 
and plenitude of apostolic power, as are fully contained in 
our letters. 

As to the kings of P:r: ■ ' '':o discovered and took 
possession of certain pa::- :: Airica, Guinea, and the gold 
mines, and other isla::,.?. -ven by a similar apostolic 
concession and donarion made in their flivor, divers priv- 
ileges, favors, liberties, immunities, exemptions. faculties, let- 
ters, and iuduJta were granted : not wishing, as it was worthy 
and lit. that you and yo::r . ::: - :.::dsuccessors aforementioned 
should not have less ilivors and prerogatives by a similar 
motive, not at the presentation of any petition by you, or 
any one for you. but from our pure liberality and certain 
knowledge and plenitude of apostolic power, to you and your 
heirs and successors aforementioned, that in the islands and 
lands by you or in your name discovered and to be dis- 
covered, all and each, favors, privileges, exemptions, let- 
ters, indults of this kind granted to the kings of Portugal, 
by the present letters we wish you to have the tenor of 



APPEXDIX. 



173 



aU, as if tliev were here inserted word for word, and 5uf- 
ficientlj expressed, that jou may lawfully possess and en- 
joy; and you ought in aH things, as if all those things 
were specially granted to you. your heirs and successors 
aforementioned, which by the authority and apostolic tenor 
of the present letters, by a gift of special favor, we grant ; 
and those in all things and for all thii:,^- your heirs 

and successors aforementioned, v-- r:i m I likewise and 
amplify, and to the same in due i_v and lorm perpet- 
ually grant, notwithstanding coi. ;::s and apostolic 
ordinances, and all those things vrLiok ~ vi e granted in let- 
ters to the kings of Portugal. 

Given at Eome. at St. Peter'.-. A. D. 1193. oth of 
May, first year of our pontificate. 

Alex AND Er. YI. * 



THE BULL •-•i:>TEE CETERA DB'IX^ MAGISTRATE 
BE^~EPLACTTA OPEEA," i^c. 

Alexander, bishop, sepvant <:f the sepvaxts 
OP God : To our heloved \ :". ' : K' \ and 
our heloved daugJder IsahF \ Leon^ 
Arragon, the Sicilies^ and. G, _ : j'AS per- 
sonages, health and apostolic . 

Among the many works pi e " ' rine Majesty 

and desirable to our hearts, il p :.:ey prevails, that 

* The illustrious civilian, Count Joseph, de Alaistxe, in Ms work en- 
titled *• The Pope," thus speaks of this bull of Alexander : — 

" A century before the time of the celebrated treaty of Westphalia, 
a pope, who presents in his own person a melancholy exception to that 
long series of virtues by which the holy see has been honored, pub- 
lished the famous buU which divided between the Spaniards and the 

15* 



IT-i Catholic eistoey of ameeica. 



the Catholic faitli and Clirisdan reli^':::. e^y eciaUy in 
our timei. may be f" /' ' : ':~v', ' ; ■ here dif- 
fused, the salvarioi. ^:./;.:rh : ::.:s na- 
tions siibjugaied and made obedient to :h.- Hence 



when we were raised bv the divine clemency, though of 
little merit, to the holy chair of Peter, knowing you to be 
true Catholic kings and prmces, as indeed we have al- 
ways known you to be. \ ^ - you have also by your il- 
lustrious deeds made yc '/.: liiown as such to the whole 
world; nor did you ni^i r-y 'v-ii - :; r r -.::h. ' you 
have also used every elibri, study, and dihgence, spai'ing 
no fatigue, no cost, no danger, even shedding your own 
blood, and devoting yom' whole soul and all your energies to 
this purpc ->, - : v.: : : ; : r : : the kingdom of Granada 
from the tyr:.:::.y ::: * ":; :rns in our days, ^^hh such 
glory to the divine n :Ts:n:rS ; we ar- i::-.V;.cr :::: un- 
worthily, and vre ought, to grant to you :n:-T :"nn_s 
fworably and spontanecn-n" I v which you may be able to 
prosecute this undertakin,. holy and praiseworthy to 
the immortal God, and that you may daily increa,se more 

Portuguese those territories v^rlcli the ernerprising geniTis of discoT- 
ery had already given, or .".5 ri"e. :: rrro nations 

in the Indies and in Ap-ieric:., r._; -::zer 01 :::e pciirii:" traced a line 
on the globe, which the t^" .agreed to consider as a sacred 

boundary, which ambition sr. - : : - . ect on either side. 

" Nothing more grand could have been witnessed than the two peo- 
ple thus submitting such differences as then existed between them, 
and such as might afterwards occur, to the disinterested decision of the 
common father of all the faithful, and so substituting the most im- 
posing arbitration for interminable wars. It was a great happiness 
for humanity that the pontifical dignity had yet sufficient influence to 
obtain this remarkable consent ; and the noble arbitration was so wor- 
thy of a true successor of St. Peter that the bull ^ inter cetera ' ought 
to belong to another pontiff." 



APPENDIX. 



175 



and more in fervor for tlie honor of God and the propaga- 
tion of the kingdom of Christ, 

We have heard to our great joy that jou have proposed 
to labor and use every exertion, that the inhabitants of 
certain islands and continents remote, and hitherto un- 
known, and of others yet undiscovered, be reduced to wor- 
ship our Redeemer and profess the Catholic faith. Till 
now you have been fully occupied in the conquest and 
capture of Granada, and could not accomplish your holy 
and praiseworthy desires nor obtain the results you 
wished. You sent, not without the greatest exertions, dan- 
gers, and expense, our beloved son Christopher Colon, a 
man of worth and much to be commended, fit for such 
business, with vessels and cargoes, diligently to search for 
continents and remote and unknown islands on a sea hith- 
erto never navigated ; who finally, vdih the divine as- 
sistance and great diligence, navigated the vast ocean, 
and discovered certain most distant islands and continents 
which were previously unknown, in which very many na- 
tions dwell peaceably, and, as it is said, go naked and ab- 
stain from animal food, and, as far as your ambassadors 
can conjecture, believe there is one God, Creator, in 
heaven, and seem sufficiently apt to embrace the Catholic 
faith, and might be imbued with good morals, and have 
every reason to believe that, if instructed, the name of our 
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may easily be established 
in the said islands and continents ; that in these islands and 
continents pJready have been found gold, spices, and many 
other articles of value of different kinds and qualities. 
Every thing being diligently considered, especially for the 
exaltation and diffusion of the Catholic faith, (as it be- 
hooveth Catholic kings and princes,) according to the cus- 



176 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMERICA. 



torn of your ancestors, kings of illustrious memory, jou 
have proposed to subjugate the aforementioned islands and 
continents, with their inhabitants, to yourselves, with the 
assistance of the divine goodness, and reduce them to the 
Catholic faith, and that the said Christopher Colon may 
construct and build a fortress on one of the principal 
islands of sufficient strength to protect certain Christians 
who may emigrate thither. 

We therefore very much commend in the Lord this 
your holy and praiseworthy intention ; and that you may 
bring it to the proper end, and by it establish the name of 
our Lord in those parts, we strenuously exhort you in 
the Lord, and by your baptism, by which you are obli- 
gated to the apostolic mandates, and by the bowels of the 
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ we earnestly exact of you, 
that, when you undertake and assume an expedition of this 
kind, you do it with a humble spirit, and with zeal for the 
orthodox faith ; and you must wish, and ought to induce, 
the people living in those islands and continents to receive 
the Christian religion ; and let no dangers, no fatigues, at 
any time deter you, but entertain hope and faith that 
Almighty God may crown your efforts with happy suc- 
cess. 

To enable you more freely and more boldly to assume 
the undertaking of such an enterprise, by the liberality of 
our apostolic favor, inotu propria, and not at your re- 
quest, nor by the presentation of any petition to us on this 
subject for you, but of our pure liberality, and from the 
certain knowledge and plenitude of apostolic power, we 
gi'ant to you and your heirs, and your successors, kings of 
Castile, Leon, &:c., and by tlie present letters give for- 
ever, all the islands and continents discovered and to be 



177 



discoTieredj explored and to be exploited, towards the west 
and south, forming and drawing a hne from the arctic 
pole, that is the north, to the antarctic pole, that is the 
south, whether the islands or continents discovered or to 
be discovered lie towards India or towards any other part, 
which line is distant from one of the islands vulgarly 
called Azores y Cabo Verde one hundred leagues west 
and south ; so that all the islands and continents discovered 
or to be discovered, explored or to be explored, beyond the 
aforementioned line towards the west and south, not ac- 
tually possessed by other kings or Christian princes be- 
fore the day of the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ 
last past, from which the present year 1493 commences, 
when any of the said islands are discovered by your emis- 
saries or captains, we, by the authority of Almighty God, 
given to us in St, Peter as vicar of Jesus Christ, which au- 
thority we exercise on earth, assign you and your heirs and 
said successors all the dominions over those states, places, 
and towns, with all rights, jurisdiction, and all their ap- 
purtenances, with full, free, and all power, authority, and 
jurisdictiom ^Ve make, constitute, and depute, discerning 
nevertheless by our donation concession and assignment 
of this kind, that the rights cannot be understood to be 
taken away from any Christian prince who actually pos- 
sessed such islands or continents before the aforementioned 
dav of Christ's nativity, nor are to be deprived of them. 

TVe moreover command you, by virtue of holy obedi- 
ence, (as you have promised, and we doubt not from your 
great devotion and royal magnanimity that you will do it.) 
that you send to the said islands and continents tried men, 
who fear God. learned and skilfuh and expert to instruct 
the inhabitants in the Catholic faith and teach them good 



ITS 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



moral?, using proper diligence in the aforementioned things ; 
and we forbid eveiy one. under pain of excommunication 
ijjso facfo. no matter vrhat may be his dignity, — even 
imperial, royal. — state, order, or condition, to act contrary to 
this our mandate. And vre severely forbid any one to go 
to the islands or continents discovered or to be discovered, 
explored or to be explored, towards the west or south, be- 
yond the line drawn from the arctic to the antarctic pole, 
one hundred leagues from one of the islands commonly called 
Azores y Cabo Yerde. towards the west and south : and 
let no one. for trade or any other reason, presume to ap- 
proach without your special license or that of your heii^s 
and successors aforementioned, notAvithstanding constitu- 
tions or apostolic ordinances, or any thing contrary to it ; 
trusting God. from whom . empires, and dominations, and 
all good things proceed, will direct your actions if you pros- 
ecute this holy and praiseworthy object — hoping that short- 
ly your labors and elibrts may obtain a most happy tenni- 
nation. and redoimd to the glory of all Christian people. 

Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, in the year of our Lord's 
incarnation 1493, 9th of May, and first year of our pon- 
tificate. 

AlEX-4JS'DER. 



4 



NO. III. 



APOSTOLIC LETTER OF POPE PAUL III., A. D. 1537, 
DECLARING THE AMERICAN INDIANS TO BE RA- 
TIONAL CREATURES. 

[One of tlie reverend fathers of Georgetown College, to whom I am 
indebted for this translation, mites me, in sending it, as follows : *' I 
send yon herewith a literal translation of it — I fear almost too lit- 
eral a one. Still I think it is the kind of translation you wish, as it 
is as faithful as possibly could be made of the original, to hare it 
any thing like English. The historians who speak of it improperly 
call it a bull ; it is only an ' apostolical letter.' Hence I was not 
able to find it in the Bullarium. The only places in which it can be 
found, so far as I know, are Torquemado's Monarchia Indica and 
Clavigero's History of Mexico. The copy from which I had the 
accompanying translation made is from Clavigero's History of 
Mexico, English translation, vol. iii. p. 282, where it is given in a 
note."] 

Paul III., ^pope^ to all the faithful of Christ ivho shall 
see the 'present letters^ health and apostolical henedic- 
tion. 

Truth itself, wliicli can neither deceive nor be deceived, 
when it appointed the preachers of faith to the office of 
preaching, is well known to have said, " Going^ teach all 
nations^ He said aZ/, without any choice ; for all are capa- 
ble of receiving the instruction of the faith. The enemy 
of mankind, who ever opposes good undertakings in order to 

(179) 



180 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 

bring them to nouglitj aware of this commission, and instigat- 
ed by envy, invented a method, hitherto unknown, of pre- 
venting the word of God from being preached to nations that 
they might be saved. As he has excited some of his satellites, 
who, eagerly desiring to satisfy their avarice, habitually 
'presume to assert that the western and southern Indians 
.and the other nations, which in these times have come to 
our knowledge, under the pretext that they were devoid 
of the Catholic faith, should, like brutes, be brought un- 
der our servitude ; and indeed they are enslaved and 
treated with such inhumanity that their masters would 
scarcely exercise similar cruelty upon the very brutes that 
serve them : We, therefore, who, though unworthy, are 
the vicegerent of our Lord upon earth, and who seek 
with our whole endeavor the sheep of his flock intrusted 
to us which are outside of his fold, in order to brmg 
them into the fold itself, reflecting that these Indians, as 
true men, are not only capable of the Christian faith, but 
also, as has been made known to us, that they embrace the 
faith with the utmost promptitude, and wishing to pro- 
vide theni with suitable remedies, decree and declare by 
apostolical authority that the above-mentioned Indians and 
all other nations who may in future come to the knowl- 
edge of Christians, though they be out of the faith of 
Christ, can freely and lawfully use, possess, and enjoy 
their liberty and dominion in that regard, and that they 
ought not to be reduced to slavery, and that whatever 
may otherwise have been done is null and void. More- 
over, that those Indians and other nations are to be 
invited to the aforesaid faith of Christ by the preach- 
ing of the word of God and by the example of a good 
life. 



APPENDIS. 



181 



This decree is to hold good, notY\dthstanding any pre- 
vious acts and whatsoever else to the contrary. 

Given at Rome, TV, noii,, June, 1537, the third year of 
our pontificate, 

16 



"SO. IT. 



spAxisH for:m or takixct possession. 



) ciamatioTi . s : ': 5 : ?, - - 
at introdnof 1 zy z'^e 



I. Al oxz ' I E Ojepa. servant of tlie high and mighty 



Kings of C:.s::lr cnf. L-. : •■"'/'zers of ;: : z': :-.z: v.s nationSy 

thziz !i:z^^.z_-z z::: o:/ .;.::^ z:::zr z^f i:::;-^ zz^:-ti to 
Toz, ::: :fv \ "~: z' I -f_z': < t : ;I ::-_;r L ., and 
eiemal. crez:vZ :zz Lzz^zz- ^zil rzz:f. z:::. ';zr _ 

those ^zz: :-f z^l come afrer us : bui the vast nmnber of 
gzz z : z zz rz z: :zzz:2, in Aeconrse 

o: zf 7rzi r : :: azve elapsed since 



the creation of the ^ 'z:^^ znade it necessary that some of 
the human race sh<: in one direction . zz 1 ^ : zne 

in another, and th:.: . / z.d divide them-rlvcs ii.:o 
many kingdoms and provinces, as they could not sustain 
and preserve themselves in one alone. AH : 
were given in charge, by God our Lord, tc' 
named St. Peter, who was thus made lord r 
of all the people of the earth, and head 




APPENDIX, 



183 



liiiman lineage ; ^yllom all sliould obey, wherever they might 
live, and Trhatever might be their law. sect, or belief. He 
gave him also the whole world for his service and juris- 
diction ; and though he desired that he should establish his 
chair in Eome, as a place most convenient for governing 
the world, yet he permitted that he might establish his 
chair in any other part of the world, and judge and gov- 
ern all the nations. Christians. Moors. Jews, Gentiles, and 
whatever other sect or belief might be. This person wa-s 
denominated pope. — that is to say. admirable, supreme, 
father, and guardian. — because he is father and governor 
of all mankind. Tliis holy father was obeyed and honored, 
as lord; king, and superior of the universe, by those who 
lived in his time, and in like manner have been obeyed 
and honored all those who have been elected to the pon- 
tificate ; and thus it has continued unto the present day, 
and will continue until the end of the world. 

One of these pontiffs of whom I have spoken, as lord 
of the world, made a donation of these islands and con- 
tinents of the ocean sea, and all that they contain, to the 
Cathohc kings of Castile, who at that time were Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella of glorious memory, and to their succes- 
sors, our sovereigns, according to the tenor of certain 
papers dra^^m up for the purpose, (which you may see, if 
you desire.) Thus his majesty is king and sovereign of 
these islands and continents by virtue of the said donation ; 
and, as king and sovereign, certain islands, and almost all, 
to whom this has been notified, have received his majesty, 
and have obeyed and served, and do actually serve him. 
And moreover, Hke good subjects, and with good will, 
and without any resistance or delay, the moment they were 
infonned of the foregomg, they obeyed all the religious 



184 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



men sent among tliem to preacli and teach our holy faith ; 
and these of their free and cheerful will, without any con- 
dition or rewardj became Christians, and continue so to be. 
And his majesty received them kindly and benignantlyj 
and ordered that they should be treated like his other sub- 
jects and vassals. You also are required and obliged to do 
the same. Therefore, in the best manner I can, I pray 
and entreat you that you consider well what I have said, 
and that you take whatever time is reasonable to under- 
stand and deliberate upon it, and that you recognize the 
church for sovereign and superior of the universal world, 
and the suprem^e pontiff^ called pope, in her name, and his 
majesty, in his place, as superior and sovereign king of the 
islands and terra firma by virtue of said donation, and 
that you consent that these religious fathers declare and 
preach to you the foregoing. And if you shall so do, you 
will do well, and will do that to which you are bounden 
and obhged ; and his majesty, and I in his name, will re- 
ceive you with all due love and charity, and will leave you 
your wives and children free from servitude, that you may 
freely do v/ith them and with yourselves whatever you 
please and think proper, as have done the inhabitants of 
the other islands. And besides this, his majesty will give 
you many privileges and exemptions, and grant you many 
favors. If you do not do this, or wickedly and intention- 
ally delay to do so, I certify to you that, by the aid of 
God, I will forcibly invade and make war upon you in all 
parts and modes that I can, and will subdue you to the 
yoke and obedience of the church and of his majesty ; and 
I will take your wives and children and make slaves of 
them, and sell them as such, and dispose of them as his 
majesty may command ; and I will take your effects, and 



APPENDIX. 



185 



vrili do you all the harm and injinyin mypovrer. as vassals 
who will not ober or receive their sovereign, and who re- 
sist and oppose him. And I protest that the deaths and 
disasters which may in this manner be occasioned will be 
the fault of yourselves, and not of hi^ majesty, nor of me, 
nor of these cavaliers who accompany me. And of what 
I here tell yon. and reLpiire of yon. I call upon the notary 
here present to give me his signed testimonial. 
16*- 



XO. Y. 



THE JESriTS IX CAXADA. 

[ror the c: the Jesttits in Canada to the catise of Indian civil- 

iz-ti^::, 'jvihio thrh- ;v.yyression by France. I refer the reader 
to the fjh:-.'-::: _: tef hnicnles, gathered together in TTarburton's 
Conquest of C:. voh h. p. 276.] 

The Jesuirs are conimonly very learned, studious, and 
are very civil and agreeable in company. In their whole 
deportment there is sometliing pleasing : it is no wonder, 
therefore, that they captivate the minds of the people. 
Tliey seldom speak of religious matters ; and if it happens, 
they generally avoid disputes. They are very ready to do 
any one a service : and when they see that their assistance 
is wanted, they hardly give one time to speak of it. falling 
to work immediately to bring about what is required of 
them. Th^r'-.' : ^-'-r-ation is very entertaining andleaimed, 

so that one - . ? tired of their coiupany. Among all 

the Jesuits I have conversed with in Canada. I have not 
found one who was not possessed of these qualities in a 
very eminent degree. They do not care to become 
preachers to a congregation in the town or country, but 
leave these places, together with tr.e emoluments anting 
from them, to the priests. All their business here is to 
convert the heathen ; and vrith that view theii' missionaries 

(1S6) 



APPENDIX. 



187 



are scattered over every part of the country. Near every 
town and village peopled by converted Indians are one or 
two Jesuits, who take great care that they may not return 
to paganism, but live as Christians ought to do. Thus 
there are Jesuits with the converted Indians in Tadoussac, 
Lorette, Begancourt, St. Franpois, Sault St. Louis, and all 
over Canada. There are likewise Jesuit missionaries 
with those who are not converted, so that there is com- 
monly a Jesuit in every village belonging to the Indians, 
whom he endeavors on all occasions to convert. Li winter 
he goes on their great hunts, where he is frequently obliged 
to suffer all imaginable inconveniences, such as walking 
in the snow all day, lying in the open air all winter, lying 
out both in good and bad weather, lying in the Indian 
huts, which swarm with fleas and other vermin, &c. The 
Jesuits undergo all these hardships for the sake of convert- 
ing the Indians, and likewise for political reasons. The 
Jesuits are of great use to their king ; for they are fre- 
quently able to persuade the Indians to break their treaty 
with the English, to make war upon them, to bring their 
furs to the French, and not to permit the English to come 
among them. There is much danger attending these ex- 
ertions ; for, when the Indians are in liquor, they some- 
times kill the missionaries who live with them, calling 
them spies, or excusing themselves by saying that the 
brandy had killed them. These are the chief occupations 
of the Jesuits in Canada. They do not go to visit the sick 
in the town ; they do not hear the confessions, and attend 
to no funerals. I have never seen them go in procession 
in honor of the Virgin Mary or other saints. Everybody 
sees they are, as it were, selected from other people on ac- 
count of their superior genius and abilities. They are 



188 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OP AMERICA. 



here reckoned a most cunning set of people, svlio general- 
ly succeed in their undertakings, and surpass all others in 
acuteness of understanding. I have therefore several 
times observed that they have enemies in Canada. They 
never receive any others into their society but persons of 
very promising parts, so that there are no blockheads 
among them. The Jesuits who live here are all come 
from France, and many of them return thither again after 
a stay of a few years here. Some who were born in Can- 
ada went over to France, and were received among the 
Jesuits there, but none of them ever came back to Cana- 
da. I know not wdiat pohtical reason hindered them. 
During my stay in Quebec, one of the priests, with the 
bishop's leave, gave up his priesthood and became a Jesu- 
it. The other priests w^ere very ill pleaded with this, be- 
cause it seemed as if he looked upon their condition as 
too mean for himself." — Kalm, m Pinkerton^ vol. xiii. p. 
648. 

" The Kecollets are a third class of clergymen in Can- 
ada. They have a fine large dwelling house here, and a 
fine church where they of&ciate. Near it is a large and 
fine garden, which they cultivate with great application. 

" In Montreal and Trois Rivieres they are lodged in al- 
most the same manner as here. They do not endeavor to 
choose cunning fellows among them, but take all they can 
get. They do not torment their brains with much learn- 
ing ; and I have been assured that, after they have put on 
their monastic habit, they do not study to increase their 
knowledge, but forget even what little they knew before. 
At night they generally lie on mats, or some other hard 
mattresses. However, I have sometimes seen good beds 
in the cells of some of them. They have no possessions 



APPENDIX. 



189 



here, having made vows of poverty, and live chiefly on the 
alms which people give them. To this purpose the young 
monks, or brothers, go into the houses with a bag. and beg 
what they want. They have no congregation in the 
country, but sometimes they go among the Indians as mis- 
sionaries. 

In each fort, which contains forty men, the king keeps 
one of these monks instead of a priest, who officiates there. 
The king gives liim lodging, provisions, servants, and all 
he wants, besides two hundred livres a year. Half of it 
he sends to the community he belongs to ; the other half 
he reserves for his own use. On board the king's ships 
are generally no other priests than these friars, vdio are 
therefore looked upon as people belonging to the king. 
When one of the chief priests * in the country dies, and 
his place cannot immediately be filled up, they send one 
of these friars there to officiate while the place is vacant. 
Part of tliese monks come over from France, and part are 
natives of Canada. 

There are no other monks in Canada besides these, 
except nov/ and then one of the order of St. Austin, or 
other who comes with one of the king's ships, but goes off 
with it again. 

The priests are the second and most numerous class of 
the clergy in this country ; for most of tlie churches, both 
m towns and villages, (the Indian converts excepted.) are 
served by priests. A few of them are likewise mission- 
aries. In Canada are two seminaries : one in Quebec, the 
other in Montreal. The priests of the seminary of Mon- 
treal are of the order of St. Sulpitius, and supply only the 



* Pasteur. 



190 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



congi'egation on the Isle of ^Montreal and the town of the 
same name. At all the other churches in Canada the 
priest- ijL-lungirig to the Quebec seminarv officiate. The 
former, or tho?^ of the order of St. Sulpitius. all come 
from France ; and I was assu.red that they never sutfer a 
native of Canada to come among them. 

In the seminary at Quebec, the natives of Canada 
make the greater part. 

In order to ht the children of this country for orders, 
there are schools at Quebec and St. Joachim, where the 
youths are taught Latin, and instructed in the knowledge 
of those things and sciences which have a more immediate 
connection vrith the business they are intended for. 

However, they are not very nice in their choice, and 
2:)eople of a middling capacity are often received among 
them. 

They do not seem to liave made great progress in 
Latin ; for. notwithstanding the service is read in that 
language, and they read their Latin breviary and other 
books every day. yet most of them find it very difficidt to 
speak it. 

All the priests in the Quebec seminary are conse- 
crated by the bishop. Both the seminaries have got great 
revenues from the king ; that in Quebec has above thirty 
thousand livres. All the country on the west side of the 
River St. Lawrence, from the town of Quebec to Bay St. 
Paul, belongs to this seminary, besides their other posses- 
sions in the country. They lease the land to the settlers 
for a certain rent, wliich if it be annually paid according 
to their agreement, the children or heirs of the settlers 
may remain in an undisturbed possession of the lands. 



191 



" A piece of land three arpents * broad, and tliirtj^ 
forty, or fifty arpents long, pays annually an ecu,t and a 
couple of chickens, or some other additional trifle. In 
such places as have convenient waterfalls they have built 
watermills or sawmills, from which they annually get 
considerable sums. The seminary of Montreal possesses 
the whole ground on which that town stands, together with 
the whole Isle of Montreal. I have been assured that the 
ground rent of the town and isle is computed at seventy 
thousand livres, besides what they get for saying masses, 
baptizing, holding confessions, attending at marriages and 
funerals, &c. All the revenues of ground rent belong to 
the seminaries alone, and the priests in the country have 
no share in them. But the seminary in Montreal, consist- 
ing only of sixteen priests, has greater revenues than it 
can expend ; a large sum of money is annually sent over 
to France to the chief seminary there. The land rents 
belonging to the Quebec seminary are employed for the 
use of the priests in it, and for the maintenance of a num- 
ber of young people who are brought up to take orders. 
The priests who live in the country parishes get the tithe 
from their congregation, together with the perquisites on 
visiting the sick, &:c. In small congregations, the king 
gives the priests an additional sum. When a priest in the 
country grows old, and has done good service, he is some- 
times allowed to come into the seminary in town. The 
seminaries are allowed to place the priests on their own 
estates, but the other places are in the gift of the bishop." 
— Ihid. 

* A French acre. 

t A French coin, yakie about a crown English. 



192 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA, 



" After tlie conquest of Quebec, the British government 
prohibited the religious male orders from augmenting their 
numbers, excepting the priests. The orders were allowed 
to enjoy the whole of their revenues as long as a single in- 
dividual of the body existed; then they reverted to the 
crown. The revenue of the Jesuit Society was upward 
of twelve thousand pounds per annum when it fell into 
the possession of the government. It had been for sev- 
eral years enjoyed solely by an old father, who had sur- 
vived all the rest. He was a native of Switzerland ; his 
name, Jean Joseph Casot. In his youth he was no more 
than porter to the convent ; but, having considerable merit, 
he was promoted, and in course of time received mto the 
order. He died at a very advanced age, in 1800, with a 
high character for kindness and generosity : his large in- 
come was entirely employed in charitable purposes. The 
lands belonging to the Jesuits, as well as to the other re- 
ligious orders, are by far the best in the country, and pro- 
duce the greatest revenues." — Lambert's Travels in Can- 
ada, voL i. p. 59. 

" The Jesuits, who in the early settlement of the coun- 
try were merely missionaries, obtained a patent (Petits 
Droits des Colonies FrangaiseSj vol. ii. p. 441) by which 
they acquired a license to purchase lands and hold prop- 
erty as in France. The property the Jesuits possessed in 
this country in after times was acquired by grants from the 
kings of France ; by grants from the Company of New 
France; by gifts from individuals; and by purchase." — 
SmitJis History of Canada, vol. i. p. 27 ; Weld, p. 249. 
Smith estimates the revenues of the society, when, after 
P. Casot's death, they reverted to the crown, at only six- 
teen hundred pounds per annum. Weld comes nearer to 



APPEXDIX. 



193 



the statement of Lambert. He Tisited Quebec in 1796, 
four years before P. Casot's death, and states that the 
great possessions of the Jesuits had centred in him. and 
amounted to ten thousand pounds per annum. It is to be 
remembered that in 17G4 the order of Jesuits was abol- 
ished bv the King of France, and the members of the so- 
ciety became private individuals. 

The college of the Jesuits at Quebec was long con- 
sidered as the first institution on the continent of Xorth 
America for the instruction of young men. The advan- 
tages derived from it were not limited to the better class 
of Canadians, but were extended to all whose inclination 
it was to participate in them ; and many students came 
thither from the "West Indies. From the period of the 
expulsion of the Jesuits from the states of Europe, and 
the consequent abolition of their order on that continent, 
this establishment, although protected by the British gov- 
ernment, began rapidly to decline. 

When, by the death of the last Canadian Jesuit, the 
landed property devolved to the crown, it was designed 
by the sovereign as a recompense for the services of the 
late Lord Amherst, who commanded the troops in Xorth 
America at the time of the conquest of Canada, and who 
completed the reduction of that province under the British 
government. The claim of these estates has been relin- 
quished by his successor for a pension. The revenue 
arising from them has been appropriated by the legisla- 
ture of Lower Canada for the purpose of estabhshing in 
the different parishes schools for the education of children. 
The Jesuits' college is nov\' converted into a commodious 
baiTack for the troops." — Heriofs Ccuiada, p. 30. 



NO. VL 

■ ADDRESS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF AMERICA 
TO GEORGE WASHINGTON, AND HIS REPLY. 

[After W asliington's accession to the presidency, the corporate bodies, 
civil societies, &c., presented him addresses of congratulation. For 
the following address and reply, we are indebted to Benjamin Rus- 
sell's Legacies of Washington, (Boston, 1801 ;) also to Sparks's Life 
and Writings of Washington, vol. xii.] 

Sir : We have been long impatient to testify our joy 
and unbounded confidence on your being called, by a 
unanimous vote, to the first station of a country in which 
that unanimity could not have been obtained without the 
previous merit of unexampled services, of eminent wisdom, 
and unblemished virtue. Our congratulations have not 
reached you sooner, because our scattered situation pre- 
vented the communication and the collecting of those 
sentiments which warmed every breast. But the delay has 
furnished us with the opportunity, not merely of presaging 
the happiness to be expected under your administration, 
but of bearing testimony to that which we experience. 
It is your peculiar talent, in war and in peace, to afford 
security to those who commit their protection into your 
hands. In war you shield them from the ravages of 
armed hostility ; in peace you establish public tranquillity 

(194) 



APPENDIX. 



195 



by tlie justice and moderation, not less than by tlie vigor, 
of your government. By example, as well as by vigi-= 
lance, you extend the influence of laws on the manners of 
our fellow- citizens. You encourage respect for religion, 
and inculcate, by words and actions, that principle on 
which the welfare of nations so much depends — that a su- 
perintending Providence governs the events of the world 
and watches over the conduct of men. Your exalted 
maxims and unwearied attention to the moral and physi- 
cal improvement of our country have produced already 
the happiest effects. Under your administration, America 
is animated with zeal for the attainment and encourage- 
ment of useful literature ; she improves agriculture, ex- 
tends her commerce, and acquires with foreign nations a 
dignity unknown to her before. From these happy events, 
in which none can feel a warmer interest than ourselves, 
we derive additional pleasure by recollecting that you, 
sir, have been the principal instrument to effect so rapid a 
change in our pohtical situation. This prospect of national 
prosperity is pecuharly pleasing to us on another account ; 
because, whilst our country preserves her freedom and in- 
dependence, we shall have a v/eU-founded title to claim 
from her justice the equal rights of citizenship, as the 
price of our blood spilt under your eyes, and of our com- 
mon exertions for her defence, under your auspicious 
conduct — rights rendered more dear to us by the remem- 
brance of former hardships. When we pray for the preser- 
vation of them where they have been granted, and expect 
the full extension of them from the justice of those states 
which still restrict them, when we solicit the protection 
of Heaven over our common country, we neither admit, 
nor can omit, recommending your preservation to the singu- 



195 CATHOLIC IIISTOSr OF AMERICA. 

lar care of divine Providence, because ve conceive that 
no human mean? ar^r so avail ahl-r tj ' ' r.: " :c- the ^veliare 
of the United Srate^ as tlie pru^:::^. your heahh 

and life, in vhicli are included the energy of your exam- 
ple, the vrisdom of your counsels, and the persuasive elo- 
Cjuence of your virtuus. 

In behalf of the Eoman Catholic clergy. 

J. Careoll. 

In behalf of the Eoman Catholic laity. 

Chaele? Caeeole. of Carrohton^ 

D AX I E L C A E E C* L L . 
ThO^IAS FiTZSIjIjIOXS, 

DoiiixicK Lyxch. 
To which "Washington returned an ansver as foUovrs ; — 

THE AXS^^'ER TO THE EOMAX CATHOLICS IX THE 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

Gextle3IEX : TTliile I nov receive with mtich satisfac- 
tion your congratulations on my being called by a unan- 
imous vote to the first station of my country. I cannot but 
didy notice your politen^-r in cif^ring an apology for the 
unavoidable delay. As that dolay ha- given you an op- 
portunity of realizmg. instead of anticipating, the benehts 
of the general government, you will do me the justice to 
believe that your testimony of the increase of the ptibhc 
prosperity enhances the pleasure which I would otherwise 
have experienced from yoiu' atFectionate address. 

I feel that my conduct, in war and in peace, has met 
with more general approbation than could reasonably have 



APPENDIX. 



197 



been expected ; and I find myself disposed to consider 
tliat fortunate circumstance in a great degree resulting 
from the able support and extraordinary candor of mj fei- 
loTV-citizens of all denominations. 

The prospect of national prosperity now before us is 
trulv animating, and ought to excite the exertions of all 
good men to establish and secure the happiness of their 
country in the permanent duration of its freedom and 
independence. America, under the smiles of a diyine 
Proyidence, the protection of a good goyernment, and the 
cultiyation of manners, morals, and piety, cannot fail of 
attaining an uncommon degree of eminence in literature, 
commerce, agriculture, improyements at home, and respect- 
ability abroad. 

As mankind become more liberal, they will be more 
apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as wor- 
thy members of the community ai'e equally entitled to the 
protection of civil government. I hope ever to see Amer- 
ica among the foremost nations in examples of justice and 
liberality ; and I presume that your fellow-citizens will 
not forget the patriotic part which you took in the accom- 
plishment of their revolution and the estabhshment of 
their government, or the important assistance which they 
received from a nation in which the Eoman Cathohc faith 
is professed. 

I thank you, gentlemen, for your kind concern for me. 
"While my life and my health shall continue, in whatever 
situation ^..may be, it shall be my constant endeavor to jus- 
tify the favorable sentiments vrhich you are pleased to ex- 
press of my conduct : and may the members of yom* so- 
ciety in America, animated alone by the pure spirit of 

17 ^ 



198 CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



Christianity, and still conducting tliemselves as tlie faithful 
subjects of our free government, enjoy every temporal and 
spiritual felicity. 

G. WASHINGTOISr. 



NO. YIL 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE BLESSED CAIHARINE TE- 
GAHKOUITA, ILLUSTRATING THE INPLUENCE OF 
CHKISTIANITY ON THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF OUR 
INDIANS, 

The marvels which God is working every day, through 
the intercession of a young Iroquois female who has lived 
and died among us m the odor of sanctity, have induced 
me to inform you of the particulars of her life, although 
you have not pressed me in your letters to enter into de- 
tail. You have yourself been a vdtness of these marvels 
when you discharged there with so much zeal the duties 
of a missionary ; and you know that the high prelate who 
governs this church, touched by the prodigies with which 
God has deigned to honor the memory of this holy maiden, 
has with reason called her the Genevieve of New France. 
All the French who are in the colonies, as well as the In- 
dians, hold her in singular veneration. They come from 
a great distance to pray at her tomb ; and many, by her 
intercession, have been immediately cured of their mala- 
dies, and have received from Heaven other extraor- 
dinary favors. I will write you nothing, my reverend 
father, which I have not myself seen during the time 
she was under my care, or which I have not learned 

(199) 



200 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF A2ti:EPJCA. 



of the missionary who conferred on iier tbe lite of hoij 
baptism. 

Tegahkoiiita CwMcli is tlie name tMs samted female 
about ^ : I : : to infomi you) was bom in the 
year lo-:-': ; a: L-rj.:id^ ^u.agne. one of the setdements of the 
lower Iroqnois. wKo are called Agniez^ Her j^lher was 

an Iroquois : \\ '. ' ; her motker, who was a Chris- 

tian, WS.5 c i: _ _ : : h ad been baptized at the 

Tillage of T: 1 ^ ^ r : r - he was bronght ap among 

the French. Durir.- :'^: t ::::_'--r :hat we were at war with 
the Iroquois she was ib^kT:: • : : ■ ; ner by these Indians, and 
remained a cautive in :'__'::r _ j-ontry. We have since 
learned :h : :h;-. : h e very bosom of heathenism, she 
preserved her faith even to her death. By her maniage 
she had two childreij, one son and one danghter, the latter 
of whom if :h-r t .f "t:: :: :'o.: :o : . irive^ bat she had the 
pain to Or 1 : oo^ : able to pix>care fcr them 
the gr oi : i To: o h pox^ which ravaged the 
Ire o: i: o ^ : removed her husband, her 
son, and heon-h, Tr ^ :.Lo : oo:a was also attacked like the 
others, but s":e hi o:: noo o? tho;^ did onder the violence 
of the disease . Th/o, e: h.-r :.o- :: lonr years, she &raid 
herself an orphan, ooha i. v oo a :i her aimts, and in 
the power of an nnoiz vrl_: v. as :e.e leading man in the 
settlement. 

The smaU pox had injured her eyes ; and this infirmity- 
having rendered her incapable of enduring the glare of 
light, she remained during whole days shot op in her wig- 
wam. By degrees she began to love this sedosion, and at 
length that became her taste which she had at first endored 
only from necessity. This inclination for retirement, so 
contrary to the usual spirit of the young Iroquois, was the 



APPENDIX^ 



201 



principal cause of lier preserving her innocence of life 
while living in such scenes of corruption. 

When she was a little older, she occupied herself at 
home in rendering to her aunts all those services of which 
she was capable, and which were in accordance with her 
sex. She ground the corn, went in search of water, and 
carried the wood ; for such, among these Indians, are the 
ordinary employments of females. The rest of her time 
she spent in the manufacture of little articles, for which 
she possessed an extraordinary skill. By this means she 
avoided two rocks which would have been equally fatal to 
her innocence — idleness, so common there among her 
own sex, and which is the source of an infinite number of 
vices ; and the extreme passion they have to spend their 
time in gossiping visits, and to show themselves in public 
places where they can display their finery ; for it is not 
necessary to believe that this kind of vanity is confined to 
civilized nations. The females of our Indians, and espe- 
cially the young girls, have a great taste for parading their 
ornaments, some of which they esteem very precious. 
Their finery consists of cloths which they buy of the Eu- 
ropeans, mantles of fur, and different kinds of shells, with 
which they cover themselves from head to foot They 
have also bracelets, and collars, and pendants for the ears, 
and belts. They adorn even their moccasons, for these 
personal ornaments constitute all their riches ; and it is in 
this way, by the different kinds of garments, that they 
mark their rank among themselves. 

The young Tegahkouita had naturally a distaste for all 
this finery, which was appropriate to her sex ; but she could 
not oppose the persons who stood to her in the place of 
father and mother ; and to please them, she had sometimes 



202 CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMERICA. 



recourse to these vain ornaments. But after she became 
a Christian she looked back upon it as a great sin, and 
expiated this compliance of which she had been guilty by 
a severe penance and almost continual tears. 

M. de Thracy, having been sent by the government to 
bring to reason the Iroquois nations who laid waste our 
' colonies, carried the war into their country, and burned 
three villages of the Agniez. This expedition spread 
terror among the Indians, and they acceded to the terms 
of peace which were offered them. Their deputies were 
well received by the French, and a peace concluded to the 
advantage of both nations. 

We availed ourselves of this occasion, which seemed a 
favorable one, to send missionaries to the Iroquois. They 
had already gained some smattering of the gospel, which 
had been preached to them by Father Jogues, and partic- 
ularly those of Onnontague, among whom this father had 
fixed his residence. It is well known that this missionary 
received there that recompense of martyrdom which well 
befitted his zeal. The Indians at first held him in a severe 
captivity and mutilated his fingers, and it was only by a 
kind of miracle that he was able for a time to escape their 
fury. It seemed, however, that his blood was destined to 
be the seed of Christianity in that heathen land ; for, having 
had the courage, in the following year, to return for the 
purpose of continuing his mission among these people who 
had treated him so inhumanly, he finished his apostolic 
career amid the torments they forced him to endure.* 

* The h-istory of Father Isaac Jogues is full of romantic interest- 
He was the first to carry the cross into Michigan and among the vil- 
lages of the Mohawks. On his return from the Falls of St. Mary, 
escorted by some Huron braves, they were taken by a war party of the 



APFEXDIS. 



203 



The works of his two companions were crowned by the 
same kind of death ; and it is without doubt to the blood 
of these first apostles of the Iroqtiois nation that we must 
ascribe the blessings which God poured out on the zeal 
of those who succeeded them in this evangehcal ministry. 

The Father Fremin, the Father Bruyas. and the Father 
Pierron, who knew the language of the country, were 
chosen to accompany the Iroquois deputies, and on the 
part of the French to confirm the peace which had been 
granted them. They committed also to the missionaries 
the j)resents which the governor made, that it might facili- 
tate their entrance into these barbarous regions. They 
happened to arrive there at a time when these people are 
accustomed to plunge into all kinds of debauchery, and 
found no one, therefore, in a fit state to receive them. This 
unseasonable period, however, procured for the young Te- 
gahkouita the advantage of knowing early those of whom 
God wished to make use to conduct her to the highest 
degree of perfection. She was charged with the task of 

MohaTvks. His companions were all put to death with the usual at- 
tendants of savage cruelty, but not before Jogues had baptized two of 
them, who were neophytes, -with some drops of water he found cling- 
ing to the broad blade of an ear of Indian corn they had thrown to 
him. After suffering every cruelty, and being obliged to run the gant- 
let through three ^-illages, he was, in 1642, ransomed by the Dutch at 
Albany and set at liberty. He then sailed for France, to obtain per- 
mission from the pope to celebrate the divine mysteries with his mu- 
tilated hands. The pope granted his prayer, saying, Indignum esset 
Christi martyrum Christi non libere sa.nguinem." On his return to 
the Mohawks for the second time, he was at once received as a pris- 
oner and condemned to death as an enchanter. He approached the 
cabin where the death festival was kept, and, as he entered, received 
the deathblow. His head was hung upon the palisades of the village, 
and his body thrown into the Mohawk River. — Bancroft ^ vol. iii. p. 138. 



204 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



lodging the missionaries and attending to their wants. 
The modesty and sweetness with which she acquitted her- 
self of this duty touched her new guests ; while she on her 
part was struck with their affable manners, their regularity 
in prayer, and the other exercises into which they divided 
the day. God even then disposed her to the grace of bap- 
tism, which she would have requested if the missionaries 
had remained longer in her village. 

The third day after their arrival they were sent for to 
Tionnontoqueji, where their reception was to take place : 
it was very pompous. Two of the missionaries established 
themselves in this village, while the third commenced a 
mission in the village of Onneiout^ which is more than 
thirty leagues distant in the country. The next year they 
formed a third mission at AnnontaguL The fourth was 
established at Tsonnontouan^ and the fifth at the village of 
Goiogoen. The natives of the Agniez and the Tsoniion- 
touans are very numerous, and separated in many difterent 
villages, which is the reason why they were obliged to in- 
crease the number of the missionaries. 

At length Tegahkouita became of a marriageable age, 
and her relations were anxious to find a husband for her ; 
because, according to the custom of the country, the game 
which the husband kills in the chase is appropriated to 
the benefit of his wife and the other members of her fam- 
ily. But the young Iroquois had inclinations very much 
opposed to the designs of her relations. She had a great 
love of purity even before she knew the excellence of this 
virtue, and any thing which could soil it ever so little im- 
pressed her with horror. AYhen, therefore, they proposed 
to establish her in life, she excused herself under different 
pretexts, alleging above all her extreme youth, and the lit- 
tle inchnation she had to enter into mariiage. 



APPENDIX, 



205 



The relatives seemed to approve of tliese reasons ; but 
a Kttle while after they resolved to betroth her when she 
least expected it, and without even allov\-ing her a choice 
in the person to whom she was to be united. They, there* 
fore, cast their eyes upon a young man whose alliance ap- 
peared desirable, and made the proposition both to him 
and to the members of his family. The matter being set- 
tled on both sides, the young man in the evening entered 
the wigwam which was destined for him and seated him- 
self near her. It is thus that marria^'es are made amon^ 
the Indians ; and although these heathen extend their dis- 
soluteness and licentiousness to the gi^eatest excess, there 
is yet no nation which in pubhc guards so scrupulously 
that outward decorum which is the attendant of perfect 
modesty. A young man would be forever dishonored if 
he should stop to converse pubhcly with a young female. 
Whenever marriage is in agitation the business is to be 
settled by the parents, and the parties most interested are 
not even permitted to meet. It is sufficient that they are 
talking of the marriage of a young Indian with a young 
female to induce them with care to shun seeing and speak- 
ing with each other. When the parents on both sides 
have agreed, the young man comes by night to the wig- 
wam of his future spouse and seats himself near her ; 
vrhich is the same as declaring that he takes her for his 
wife and she takes him for her husband. 

Tegahkouita appeared utterly disconcerted when she 
saw the young man seated by her side. She at first 
blushed, and then, rising abruptly, went forth indignantly 
from the wigwam ; nor would she reenter until the young 
man left it. This firmness rendered her relatives out- 
rageous. They considered that they had in this way 
18 



206 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA, 



received an insult, and resolved that they would not be dis* 
appointed. They, therefore, attempted other stratagems, 
which served only to show more clearly the firmness of 
their niece. 

Artifice not having proved successful, they had recourse 
to violence. They now treated her as a slave, obliging 
her to do every thing which was most painful and repul- 
sive, and malignantly interpreting all her actions, even 
when most innocent. They reproached her without ceas- 
ing for the want of attachment to her relations, her un- 
couth manners, and her stupidity ; for it was thus that they 
termed the dislike she felt to marriage. They attributed 
it to a secret hatred of the Iroquois nation, because she was 
herself of the Algonquin race. In short, they omitted no 
means of shaking her constancy. 

The young girl suffered all this ill treatment with un- 
wearied patience, and without ever losing any thing of her 
equanimity of mind or her natural sweetness ; she ren- 
dered them all the services they required with an attention 
and docility beyond her years and strength. By degrees 
her relatives were softened, restored to her their kind feel- 
ings, and did not further molest her in regard to the course 
she had adopted. 

At this very time Father Jacques de Lamberville was 
conducted by Providence to the village of our young Iro- 
quois, and received orders from his superiors to remain 
there ; although it seemed most natural that he should go 
on to join his brother, who had charge of the mission to 
the Iroquois of OnnontaguL Tegahkouita did not fail to 
be present at the instructions and prayers which took 
place every day in the chapel ; but she did not dare to dis- 
close the design she had for a long time formed, of becom- 



APPENDIX. 



207 



ing a Christian ; perhaps because she was restrained by 
fear of her uncle, in whose power she entirely was, and 
who, from interested motives, had joined in the opposition 
to the Christians ; perhaps because modesty itself ren- 
dered her too timid, and prevented her from discovering 
her sentiments to the missionary. 

But at length the occasion of her declaring her desire 
for baptism presented itself vfhen she least expected it. 
A wound which she had received in the foot detained her 
in the village whilst the greater part of the women were 
in the fields gathering the harvest of Indian corn. The 
missionary had selected this time to go his rounds and in- 
struct at his leisure those who were remaining in the wig- 
wams. He entered that of Tegahkouita. This good girl, 
on seeing him, was not able to restrain her joy. She at 
once began to open her heart to him, even in presence of 
her companions, on the earnest desire she had to be ad- 
mitted into the fold of the Christians. She disclosed also 
the obstacles she had been obliged to surmount on the part 
of her family, and in this first conversation showed a 
courage above her sex. The goodness of her temper, the 
vivacity of her spirit, her simplicity and candor caused 
the missionary to believe that one day she would make 
great progress in virtue. He, therefore, applied himself 
particularly to instruct her in the truths of Christianity, 
but did not think he ought to yield so soon to her entrea- 
ties ; for the grace of baptism should not be accorded to 
adults, and particularly in this country, but with great. care, 
and after a long probation. All the winter, therefore, was 
employed in her instruction and a rigid mvestigation of 
her manner of Kfe. 

It is surprising that, notwithstanding the propensity 



208 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMEEICA. 



these Indian? have for shmder. and particularlr those of 
her ovrn sex. the missionary did not find any one but gave 
a hio'h encomium to the ^touus: catechumen. Even those 
who had persecuted her most severely were not backward 
in giving their testimony to her virtue. He, therefore, did 
not hesitate any longer to administer to her the holy bap- 
tism which she asked with so much godly earnestness. 
She received it on Easter day, in the year 1676. and was 
named Catharine : and it is thus that I shall call her in the 
rest of this ktter. 

The only care of the young neophyte was now to fulfil 
the engagements she had contracted. She did not wish to 
restrict her^eli" to the observance of common practices, for 
she tell that she was callt^d to a more perfect life. Be- 
sides the public instructions, at which she was present 
punctuallyc she requested also particular ones for the reg» 
ulation of her private and secret hfe. Her prayers, her 
devotions, and her penances were arranged with the utmost 
exactness, and she was so docile to form herseh' according 
to the plan of perfection which had been marked out for 
her that in a little time she became a model of virtue. 

In this manner several months passed away very peace- 
ably. Even her relations did not seem to disapprove of 
the new cotirse of life which she was leading. But the 
Holy Sphut has warned us. by the mouth of Wisdom, that 
the faithful soul which begins to unite itself to God should 
prepare for temptation ; and this was verified in the case 
of Cathanne. Her extraordinary virtue drew upon her 
the persecutions even of those who admired her. They 
looked upon a life so pure as being a tacit reproach to 
their own irregularities ; and, with the design of discredit- 
ing it, they endeavored by divers artifices to throw a taint 



APPEXDIX. 



209 



UDon its pnritv. I: j " :: je wliicli the neoplivte 

had in God. the u:-:rui: ^i.- idt of herseitl lier con- 
stancT in prayer, and tliat delicacv of conscience which 
made her dread even the shadow of a sin, gare her a j^er- 
fect victory over th- ei: ^mies of her innocence. 

The exactness " i:^- "hich she observed the festival 
days at the chapel was the cause of another storm which 
came npon her on the part of her relations. The chaplet 
recited by two choirs is an exercise of these holy days; 
this kind of psalmody awakens the attention of the neo- 
phytes and animates their devotions. They execute the 
hjTims and sacred canticles which onr Indians chant with 
much exactness and harmony ; for they have a fine ear. a 
good voice, and a rare taste for music. Catharine never 
omitted this exercise ; but they took it ill in the wigwam 
that on these days she abstained from going to work with 
the others in the field. At length they came to bitter 
words — cast npon her the reproach that Christianity had 
made her effeminate and accustomed her to an indolent 
life ; they did not even allow her any thing to eat, to 
oblige her. by means of famine, to follow her relations and 
to aid in their labor. The neophyte bore with constancy 
their reproach and contempt, and preferred in those days 
to do without nourishment, rather than violate the law 
which required the observance of these festivals, or to 
omit these ordinary practices of piety. 

This firmness, which nothing could shake, irritated more 
and more her heathen relatives. Whenever she went to 
the chapel they caused her to be followed with showers of 
stones by drunken people, or those who feigned to be so ; 
so that, to avoid their insults, she was often obliged to take 
the most circuitous paths. This extended even to the 



210 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMERICA. 



cMldreiij wlio pointed tlieir fingers at her, cried after her, 
and, in derision, called her " the Christian." One day, 
when she had retired to her wigwam, a young man entered 
abruptly, his eyes sparkling with rage, and a hatchet in 
his hand, Avhich he raised as if to strike her. Perhaps he 
had no other design than to frighten her. But, whatever 
might have been the Indian's intentions, Catharine con- 
tented herself with modestly bowing her head, without 
showing the least emotion. This intrepidity, so little ex- 
pected, astonished the Indian to such a degree that he 
immediately took to flight, as if he had been himself terri- 
fied by some invisible power. 

It was in such trials of her patience and piety that 
Catharine spent the summer and autumn which followed 
her baptism. The winter brought her a little more tran- 
quillity ; but, nevertheless, she was not freed from suffer- 
ing some crosses on the part of one of her aunts. This 
woman, who was of a deceitful and dangerous spirit, could 
not endure the regular life of her niece, and therefore 
constantly condemned her, even in actions and words the 
most indifferent. It is a custom among these Indians that 
uncles give the name of daughters to their nieces, and the 
nieces reciprocally call their uncles by the name of father. 
Hence it happens that cousins-german are commonly 
called brothers. It happened, however, once or twice, that 
Catharine called the husband of her aunt by his proper 
name, and not by that of father ; but it was entirely owing 
to mistake or want of thought. Yet this evil spirit did 
not need any thing furtlier as the foundation on which to 
build up a most atrocious cahumiy. She pretended to be- 
lieve that this manner of expressing herself, which seemed 
to her so familiar, was an evidence of criminal intimacy, 



APPENDIX. 



211 



and immediatelv went to seek the missionaiy. to deery her 
to him, and destroy m his mmd those sentiments of 
esteem which he had always entertained for the neophyte. 

TTell ! she said, at once; "so Catharine, whom you 
esteem so viriuous, is notwithstanding a hypocrite who 
deceives you. Even in my presence she sohcited my hus- 
band to sm." The missionary, vrho understood the eA^il 
spiidt of this woman, wished to know on vrhat she founded 
an accusation of this kmd : and having learned what had 
given occasion to this odious suspicion, he administered to 
her a severe reprimand, and sent her away utterly con- 
founded. 'When he aftervrards mentioned it to the neo- 
phyte, she answered him with a candor and confidence 
which showed the absence of all falsehood. It was on 
this occasion that she declared, — what, perhaps, vre should 
not have known if she had not been placed on this trial. — 
that by the kindness of the Lord she could not remember 
that she had ever stained the purity of her person, and 
that she did not fear receiving any reproach on this point 
in the day of judgment. 

It was sad for Catharine to have to sustain so many 
conflicts, and to see her innocence exposed without cessa- 
tion to the outrages and railleries of her cotuitrywomen. 
And in other respects she had every thing to fear in a 
country where so few of the people had imbibed a taste 
for the maxims of the gospel. She, therefore, earnestly 
desired to be transplanted to some other mis-ion. where 
she might serve God in peace and liberty. This was the 
subject of her most fervent prayers, and it was also the 
advice of the missionary : but it was not easy to bring 
about. She was entirely in the poAver of an uncle watch- 
ful of all her actions, and, through the aversion he had for 



212 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



Clirisdans, incapable of appreciating lier resolution. But 
God, wiio listens favorably even to the simple desires of 
those Avho place their trust in him, disposed all things for 
the repose and consolation of the neophyte. 

A colony of Iroquois had lately been formed among 
the French, the peace which existed between the two na- 
tions having given these Indians an opportunity of coming 
'to hunt on our lands. Many of them stopped near the 
prairie of the Madeleine, where the missionaries of our 
society v/ho dwelt there met them, and at different times 
conversed with them on the necessity of salvation. God 
at the same time influencing their hearts by the impres- 
sions of his grace, these Indians found themselves suddenly 
changed, and listened without objection to the proposition 
that they should renounce their country and settle among 
us. They received baptism after the usual instructions 
and probation. 

The example and devotion of these new converts drew 
to them many of their countrymen, and in a few years the 
mission of St, Fi^ancis Xavier du Sault (for it was thus 
that it v\^as named) became celebrated for the great num- 
ber of its neophytes and their extraordinary fervor. If an 
Iroquois had made these a visit ever so short, even though 
he had no other design but to see his relatives or friends, 
he seemed to lose entirely the desire to return to his own 
country. The charity of these neophytes led them even 
to divide v/ith the new comers the fields which they had 
cleared with much labor ; but the way in which this feel- 
ing appeared to the greatest advantage was in the eager- 
ness they showed in instructing them in the truths of our 
faith. To this work they devoted entire days, and even a 
portion of the night. Their conversations, full of unction 



APPENDIX. 



213 



and piety, made tlie most lively impression on the hearts of 
their guests, and transformed them, so to speak, into different 
beino-s. Pie who a little while before breathed of nothino; 
but blood and war, became softened, humble, teachable, and 
ready to obey the most difficult maxims of our religion. 

This zeal did not restrict itself to those who came to 
visit them, but induced them also to make excursions - into 
the different settlements of their nation, and they always 
returned accompanied by a large number of their country- 
men. On the very day that Catharine received baptism, 
one of the most powerf ul of the Agiiiez returned to the 
mission in company vrith thirty of the Iroquois of that 
tribe whom he had gained to Jesus Christ. The neophyte 
would very willingly have followed him ; but she depended, 
as I have said before, on an uncle who did not see with- 
out sorrow the depopulation of his village, and who openly 
declared himself the enemy of those who thought of go- 
ino: to live amono' the French. 

It w^as not until the follwing year that she obtained the 
facilities she wished for the execution of her design. She 
had an adopted sister, who had retired vrith her husband 
to the Mission du Sault. The zeal of the recent converts 
to draw their relatives and friends to the new colony in- 
spired her with the same thoughts with regard to Catha- 
rine ; and, disclosing her designs to her husband, he gave his 
consent. He joined himself, therefore, to an Indian of 
Loretto and some other neophytes, who, under cover of 
going to trade in beaver skins with the English, travelled 
to the villages of the Iroquois, with the intention of en- 
gaging their acquaintances to foUov/ them, and to share in 
the blessings of their conversion. 

With difficulty he reached the village in which Catha- 



214 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



rine lived, and infomied lier secretly of the object of his 
journey, and tlie desire liis ^vife felt that she should be 
with her at the Mission du Sault, whose praise he set forth 
in a few words. As the neophyte appeared transported 
with joy at this disclosure, he warned her to hold herself 
in readiness to depart immediately on his return from his 
g'ourney to the English, which he would not have made 
except to avoid giving umbrage to his uncle. This uncle 
was then absent, without having any suspicion of his 
niece's design. Catharine went immediately to take leave 
of the missionary, and to ask his recommendation to the 
fathers who were over the jlission du Sault. The mis- 
sionary on his part, while he could not withhold his ap- 
proval of the resolution of the neophyte, exhorted her to 
place her trust in God. and gave her those counsels which 
he judged necessary in the present juncture. 

As the journey of her brother-in-law was only a pre- 
text the better to conceal his design, he almost immedi- 
ately returned to the village, and the day after his arrival 
departed with Catharine and the Indian of Loretto who 
had kept him company. It was not long before it was dis- 
covered in the village that the neoplme had disappeared, 
and they had no doubt but that she had followed the two 
Indians. They immediately, therefore, despatched a run- 
ner to her uncle to give him the nevrs. The old cliief, 
jealous of the increase of his nation, foamed with rage at 
the intelhgence ; and immediately charging his gun with 
three balls, he went in pursuit of those who had accom- 
panied his niece. He made such haste that m a very 
short time he came up with them. The two Indians, who 
had known beforehand that he would not fail to pursue 
them^ had concealed the neophyte in a thick wood, and had 



APPENDIX, 



215 



stopped as if to take a little repose. The old man was 
very much astonished at not finding his niece with them ; 
and after a moment's conyersationj coming to the conclu- 
sion that he had credited too easily the first rumor which 
had been spread, he retraced his footsteps to the village. 
Catharine regarded this sudden retreat of her uncle as one 
effect of the protection of God which she enjoyed ; and^ 
continuing her route, she arrived at the Mission du Sault 
in the end of autumn of the year 1677. 

She took up her abode with the family of her brother- 
in-law. The cabin belonged to one of the most fervent 
Christians in the place, named Anastasia, whose care it 
was to instruct those of her own sex who aspired to the 
grace of baptism. The zeal with which she discharged 
her *duty in this employment, her conversations, and her 
example charmed Catharine. But what edified her ex- 
ceedingly Vv^as the piety of all the converts who composed 
this numerous mission. Above all, she was struck with 
seeing men become so different froln what they were when 
they lived in their own country. She compared their 
exemplary life with the licentious course they had been 
accustomed to lead ; and recognizing the hand of God in 
so extraordinary a change, she ceaselessly thanked him 
for having conducted her into this land of blessings. 

To make a suitable return for these favors from Heaven, 
she felt that she ought to give herself up entirely to God, 
without having any reserve, or permitting any thought of 
herself. The consecrated place became, thenceforth, all 
her delight. She repaired thither at four o'clock in the 
morning, attended the mass at the dawn of day, and after- 
wards assisted at that of the Indians, which was said at 
sunrise. During the course of the day she from time to 



216 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF A!dERICA. 



time broke oft from her Tvork to go and hold communion 
■with Jesus Christ at the foot of tlv? r.!::a\ In the even- 
ing she returned again to the chur ^., '^id nc r leave it 
until the night was far a-"^; } :::: ;:t:1 in her 
prayers, she seemed entir-ly uneonscioi:: ^liat was 
passing without ; and in a short time the H : r : \ ^'.Iz raised 
• her to so sublime a devotion that she often sjjent manv 
hours in intimate communi :ii ^"i;h God. 

To this inclination for ;^ : ; : d. : ioined an almost un- • 
ceasing application to liv^ov. one -u- in her 

toils by the pious conversations v-' i d. hciCi with An- 
astasia, that fervent Christian of ' "L : e_ I have already 
spoken, and with vrhom slie had tormed a most intimate 
friendship. The topics on which tiiey most generally talked 
were, the delight they received in the service of God. the 
means of pleasing him and advancing in virtne. the pecu- 
liar traits seen in the lives of the saints, the horror they 
should have of sin. and the care with which they should 
expiate by penitence those they had the misfortune to 
commit. She always ended the week by an exaet investi- 
gation of her faults and imperfection-, that she might etface 
them by the sacrament of penancr. v hi li she underwent 
every Saturday evening. F :r ihi^ he prepared herself 
by different mortifications with which she afficted her 
body; and when she accused herself of faults even the 
most light, it was with such vivid feelings of compunction 
that she shed tears, and her words were choked by sighs 
and sobbmgs. The lofty idea she had of the majesty of 
God made her regard ^he least offence with horror ; and 
when any had escaped her, she seemed not able to pardon 
herself for its commission. 

Virtues so marked did not permit me for a very long 



APPENDIX. 



217 



time to refuse her the permission which she so earnestly 
desired, that on the approaching festival of Christmas she 
should receive her first communion. This is a privilege 
which is not accorded to those who come to reside among 
the Iroquois until after some years of probation and many 
trials ; but the piety of Catharine placed her beyond the 
ordinary rules. She participated, for the first time in her 
life, in the holy eucharist with a degree of fervor propor- 
tioned to the reverence she had for this grace, and the 
earnestness with which she had desired to obtain it ; and 
on every subsequent occasion on which she approached 
the holy sacrament, it was always with the same disposi- 
tion. Her manner alone inspired the most lukewarm with 
devotion ; and when a general communion was about to 
take place, the most virtuous neophytes endeavored with 
emulation to be near her, because, said they, the sight 
alone of Catharine served them for an excellent prepara- 
tion for communing worthily. 

After the festival of Christmas, it being the proper sea- 
son for the chase, she was not able to excuse herself from 
following her sister and brother-in-law into the forests. 
She then made it apparent that one is able to serve God 
in all places where his providence calls him. She did not 
relax any of her ordinary exercises, while her piety even 
suggested to her holy practices to substitute in place of 
those which were incompatible with a residence in the for- 
ests. There was a time set apart for every thing. In 
the morning she apphed herself to her prayers, and con- 
cluded with those which the Indians make in common, 
according to their custom ; and in the evening she renewed 
them again, continuing until the night was far advanced. 
While the Indians were partaking of their repast, to pre- 
19 



218 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA, 



pare themselves to endure the chase through the whole 
day, she retked to some secret place to offer up her devo- 
tions. As this was a little before the time when they were 
accustomed to hear mass at the mission, she had fixed a 
cross in the trunk of a tree which she found by the side of 
a stream ; and this solitary spot was her oratory. There 
she placed herself in spirit at the foot of the altar; she 
united her soul with that of the priest ; she prayed her 
guardian angel to be present for her at that holy sacrifice, 
and to apply to her its benefits. The rest of the day she 
spent in laboring with the others of her sex ; but, to banish 
all frivolous discourse and preserve her union with God, 
she always introduced some religious conversation, or per- 
haps invited them to sing hymns or anthems in praise of 
their Lord. Her repasts were very simple, and often she 
did not eat till the end of the day. At other times she 
secretly mixed ashes with the food provided for her, to de- 
prive it of every thing which might afibrd pleasure to the 
taste. This is a self-mortification v\^hich she always prac- 
tised when she could do so without being seen. 

This sojourn in the forests was not very agreeable to 
Catharine, although generally pleasant to the Indian women, 
because, freed from domestic cares, they pass their time in 
amusements and feasting. She longed without ceasing 
for the time to arrive when they are accustomed to return 
to the village The church, the presence of Jesus Christ 
in the august sacrament of the altar, the holy sacrifice 
of the mass, the frequent exhortations, and the other exer- 
cises of the mission, of which she was deprived while 
engaged in the chase, — these were the only objects which 
interested her. She had no taste for any thing else. She 
therefore formed the determination, that, if she lived to 



APPENDIX. 



219 



return once more to the mission, she would never ao:ain 
leave it. She arrived there near the time of Passion 
week, and for the first time assisted in the ceremonies of 
those holjdays. 

I shall not stop, my reverend father, to describe to you 
here how deeply she was affected by a spectacle so touch- 
ing as that of the sorrows and death of a God for the 
safety of men. She shed tears almost continually, and 
formed the resolution to bear, for the rest of her days, in 
her own body the cross of Jesus Christ. From that time 
she sought all occasions of self-mortification, perhaps to 
expiate those light faults which she regarded as so many- 
outrages against the divine Majesty, perhaps to trace in 
her the image of a God crucified for love of us. The con- 
versations of Anastasia, who often talked with her of the 
pains of hell, and the severity which the saints exercised 
upon themselves, strengthened the desire she had for the 
austerities of penance. She found herself also animated 
to this course by an accident which placed her in great 
danger of losing her hfe. She was cutting a tree in the 
woods, which fell sooner than she expected. She had suf- 
ficient time, by drawing back, to shun the body of the 
tree, which would have crushed her by its fall ; but she 
was not able to escape from one of the branches, which 
struck her violently on the head, and threw her senseless 
to the ground. She shortly afterwards recovered from 
her swoon, and those around heard her softly ejaculating, 

I thank thee, good Jesus, for having succored me in 
this danger." She did not doubt but that God had pre- 
served her to give her time to expiate her sins by repent- 
ance. This she declared to a companion, who felt herself 
called, like Catharine, to a life of austerity, and with whom 



220 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



she was in so close an intimacy tliat they communicated 
to each other the most secret things which took place in 
their innermost souls. This new association had indeed 
so much influence on the life of Catharine that I cannot 
refrain from speaking of it. 

Therese (it is thus that she was named) had been bap- 
tized by Father Bruyas in the Iroquois country; but 
the licentiousness w^hich prevailed among her people, and 
the evil example she always bad before her eyes, caused 
her shortly to forget the vows of her baptism. Even a 
sojourn which she made after some time at the mission, 
where she had come to live with his family, only produced 
a partial change in her life. A most strange adventure, 
how^ever, w^hich happened to her, operated at last to her 
conversion. 

She had gone with her husband and a young nephew 
to the chase, near the river of the Outaoiiacks. On their 
way some other Indians joined them, and they made a 
company of eleven persons — that is, four men and four 
women, with three young persons. Therese was the only 
Christian. The snow, w^hich this year fell very late, pre- 
vented them from having any success in hunting ; their 
provisions were in a short time consumed, and they were 
reduced to eat some skins which they had brought with 
them to make moccasons. At length they ate the mocca- 
sons themselves ; and finally, pressed by hunger, were 
obliged to sustain their lives principally by herbs and the 
bai'k of trees. In the mean time the husband of Therese 
fell dangerously ill, and the hunters were obliged to halt. 
Two among them, an Agnie and a Tsonnontouan^ asked 
leave of the party to make an excursion to some distance 
in search of game, promising to return at the furthest in 



APPENDIX. 221 

ten days. The Agnie, indeed, returned at tlie time ap- 
pointed ; but he came alone, and reported that the Tson- 
nontouan had perished bv famine and misery. They sus- 
pected him of having murdered his companion, and then 
fed upon his flesh ; for, although he declared that he had 
not found any game, he was nevertheless in full strength 
and health. A few days afterwards the husband of Therese 
died, experiencing in his last moments deep regret that he 
had not received baptism. The remainder of the com- 
pany then resumed their journey, to attempt to reach the 
bank of the river and gain the French settlements. After 
two or three days' march, they became so enfeebled by 
want of nourishment that they were not able to advance 
farther. Desperation then inspired them with a strange 
resolution — which was, to put some of their number to 
death, that the lives of the rest might be preserved. They 
therefore selected the wife of the Tsonnontouan and her 
two children, who were thus in succession devoured. This 
spectacle terrified Therese, for she had good reason to fear 
the same treatment. Then she reflected on the deplorable 
state in which conscience told her she was ; she repented 
bitterly that she had ever entered the forest without hav- 
ing first 23urified herself by a full confession ; she asked 
pardon of God for the disorders of her life, and promised 
to confess as soon as possible and undergo penance. Her 
prayer was heard ; and after incredible fatigues she 
reached the village with four others, who alone remained 
of the company. She did, indeed, fuM one part of the 
promise, for she confessed herself soon after her return ; 
but she was more backward to reform her life and subject 
herself to the rigors of penance. 

One day, while she was looking at the new church they 
19^ 



222 CATHOLIC HISTORY OP AMERICA. 



were building at tlie Saiilt, after thej had removed tliitlier 
tlie mission wliicli before had been at the prairie of the 
Madeleine, she met with Catharine, who was also inspect- 
ing it. They saluted each other for the first time ; and, en- 
tering into conversation, Catharine asked her which por- 
tion of the church was to be set apart for the females. 
Therese pointed out the place v/hich she thought would be 
appropriated to them. " Alas ! " answered Catharine, with 
a sigh, "it is not in this material temple that God most 
loves to dwell. It is within ourselves that he wishes to 
take up his abode. Our hearts are the temple which is 
most agreeable to him. But, miserable being that I am, 
how many times have I forced him to abandon this heart 
in which he should reign alone ! And do I not deserve 
that, to punish me for my ingratitude, they should forever 
exclude me from this temple which they are raising to his 
glory?" 

The humility of tliese sentiments deeply touched the 
heart of Therese. At the same time she felt herself 
pressed by remorse of conscience to fulfil what she had 
promised to the Lord ; and she did not doubt but that God 
had directed to her tliis holy female, to support her by her 
counsels and example in the new kind of life she wished 
to embrace. She therefore opened her heart to Catharine 
on the holy desires with vaiicli God had inspired her, and 
insensibly the conversation led them to disclose to each 
other their most secret thoughts. To converse with great- 
er ease, they went and sat at the foot of a cross which was 
erected on the banks of the River St. Lawrence. This 
first interview, which revealed the uniformity of their sen- 
timents and inclinations, began to strengthen the bonds of 
a holy friendship, which lasted even to the death of Cath- 



APPENDIX. 



arine. From this time tliey were inseparable. They went 
together to the church, to the forest, and to their daily la- 
bor — they animated each other to the service of God by 
their religious conversations — they mutually communicat- 
ed their pains and dislikes — they disclosed their faults — 
they encouraged each other to the practice of austere vir- 
tues ; and thus were mutually of infinite service in ad- 
vancing more and more in their views of perfection. 

It was thus that God prepared Catharine for a new con- 
test which her love of celibacy obliged her to undergo. 
Interested views inspired her sister with the design of 
marrying her. She supposed there was not a young man 
then in the Mission du Sault who would not be ambitious 
of the honor of being united to so virtuous a female, and 
that thus, having the vvdioie village from which to make her 
choice, she would be able to select for her brother-in-law 
some able hunter who would bring abundance to the cabin. 
She expected, indeed, to meet with difficulties on the part 
of Catharine, for she was not ignorant of the persecutions 
this generous girl had already suffered, and the constancy 
with which she had sustained them ; but she persuaded her- 
self that the force of reason would finally vanquish her 
opposition. She selected, therefore, a particular day ; and 
after having shown Catharine even more affection than or- 
dinary, she addressed her with that eloquence which is 
natural to these Indians when they are engaged in any 
thing which concerns their interests. 

" I must confess, my dear sister," said she, with a man- 
ner full of sweetness and affability, " you are under great 
obligations to the Lord for having brought you, as well as 
ourselves, from our unhappy country, and for having con- 
ducted you to the Mission du Sault, where every thing is 



224 



CATHOLIC HISTOBY OP AMERICA* 



favorable to your piety. If you are rejoiced to be here, I 
have no less satisfaction at having you with me. You ev- 
ery day, indeed, increase our pleasure by the wisdom of 
your conduct, which draws upon you general esteem and 
approbation. There only remains one thing for you to do 
to complete our happiness ; which is, to think seriously of 
establishing yourself by a good and judicious marriage. 
All the young girls among us take this course ; you are of 
an age to act as they do ; and you are bound to do so even 
more particularly than others, either to shun the occasions 
of sin, or to supply the necessities of life. It is true that 
it is a source of great pleasure *to us, both to your brother- 
in-law and myself, to furnish these things for you ; but you 
know that he is in the decline of life, and that we are 
charged with the care of a large family. If you were to 
be deprived of us, to whom could you have recourse? 
Think of these things, Catharine ; provide for yourself a 
refuge from the evils which accompany poverty ; and de- 
termine as soon as possible to prepare to avoid them, while 
you can do it so easily, and in a vfay so advantageous both 
to yourself and to our family." 

There was nothing which Catharine less expected than 
a proposition of this kind; but the kindness and respect 
she felt for her sister induced her to conceal her pain, and 
she contented herself with merely answering, that she 
thanked her for this advice, but the step was of great con- 
sequence, and she would think of it seriously. It was thus 
that she warded off the first attack. She immediately 
came to seek me, to complain bitterly of these importunate 
solicitations of her sister. As I did not appear to accede 
entirely to her reasoning, and, for the purpose of proving 
her, dwelt on those considerations which ought to incline 



APPEXDIX, 



225 



her to marriage, Ali, my father," said she, " I am not 
nnj longer my own, I have given myself entirely to 
Jesus Christ, and it is not possible for me to change mas- 
ters. The poverty with which I am threatened gives me 
no uneasiness. So little is requisite to supply the necessi- 
ties of this wretched life that my labor can furnish this, 
and I can always find some miserable rags to cover me." 
I sent her away, saying that she should think well on the 
subject, for it was one which merited the most serious at- 
tention. 

Scarcely had she returned to the cabin when her sister, 
impatient to bring her over to her views, pressed her anew 
to end her wavering by forming an advantageous settle- 
ments _ But, finding from the reply of Catharine that it 
was useless to attempt to change her mind, she determined 
to enlist Anastasia in her interests, since they both regard- 
ed her as their mother. In this she was successfuL An- 
astasia was readily induced to believe that Catharine had 
too hastily formed her resolution, and therefore employed 
all that influence which age and virtue gave her over the 
mind of the young girl, to persuade her that marriage was 
the only part she ought to take. 

This measure^ however, had no greater success than the 
other ; and Anastasia, who had always until that time found 
&o much docility in Catharine, was extremely surprised at 
the little deference she paid to her counsels. She even 
bitterly reproached her, and threatened to bring her com- 
plaints to me. Catharine anticipated her in this ; and after 
having related the pains they forced her to suffer to induce 
her to adopt a course so little to her taste, she prayed me 
to aid her in consummating the sacrifice she wished to 
make of herself to Jesus Chri^t^ and to provide her a 



226 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OF AMERICA. 



refuge from the opposition she had to undergo from Anas= 
tasia and her sister. I praised her design, but at the same 
time advised her to take yet three days to dehberate on an 
affair of such importance, and during that time to offer up 
extraordinaiy prayers that she might be better taught the 
will of God ; after which, ff she still persisted in her res- 
olution, I promised her to put an end to the importunities 
of her relatives. She at fii^st acquiesced in what I pro- 
posed, but in less than a quarter of an hour came back to 
seek me. " It is settled," said she, as she came near me ; 
" it is not a question for dehberation ; my part has long 
since been taken, No, my father, I can have no other 
spouse but Jesus Christ." I thought that it would be 
wrong for me any longer to oppose a resolution which 
seemed to me inspired by the Holy Spiiit, and therefore 
exhorted her to perseverance, assuring her that I would 
undertake her defence against those who wished hence- 
forth to disturb her on that subject. This answer restored 
her former tranquillity of mind, and reestablished in her 
soul that inward peace which she preserved even to the 
end of her life. 

Scarcely had she gone when Anastasia came to com- 
plain in her turn that Catharine would not listen to any 
advice, but followed only her own whims. She was run- 
ning on in this strain, when I interrupted her by saving 
that I was acquainted with the cause of her dissatisfaction, 
but was astonished that a Christian as old as she was could 
disapprove of an action which merited the highest praise, 
and that, if she had faith, she ought to know the value of 
a state so sublime as that of celibacy, which rendered fee- 
ble men like to the angels themselves. At these words 
Anastasia seemed to be in a perfect dream ; and as she pes- 



APPENDIX, 



227 



sessed a deeply-seated devotion of spirit, she almost imme- 
diately began to turn the blame upon herself. She admired 
the courage of this virtuous girl, and at length became the 
foremost to fortify her in the holy resolution she had taken. 
It was thus that God turned these different contradictions 
to be a benefit to his servant, and it also furnished Cath- 
arine with a new motive to serve God with greater fervor. 
She therefore added new practices to the ordinary exercises 
of piety. Feeble as she was, she redoubled her diligence 
in labor, her watchings, fastings, and other austerities. 

It was then the end of autumn, when the Indians are 
accustomed to form their parties to go out to hunt during 
the winter in the forests. The sojourn which Catharine 
had already made there, and the pain she had suffered at 
being deprived of the religious privileges she possessed in 
the village, had induced her to form the resolution, as I 
have already mentioned, that she would never during her 
life return there. I thought, however, that the change of 
air, and the diet, which is so much better in the forest, 
would be able to restore her health, which was now very 
much impaired. It was for this reason that I advised her 
to follow the family and others who went to the hunting 
grounds. She answered me, in that deeply devotional 
manner which was so natural to her, " It is true, my fa- 
ther, that my body is served most luxuriously in the forest ; 
but the soul languishes there, and is not able to satisfy its 
hunger. On the contrary, in the village the body suffers ; 
I am contented that it should be so ; but the soul finds its 
delight in being near to Jesus Christ. Well, then, I will 
wiUingly abandon this miserable body to hunger and suf- 
fering, provided that my soul may have its ordinary nour- 
ishment." 



228 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OP AMERICl. 



She remained^ tliereforej during tlie winter in the village, 
where she lived only on Indian corn, and was subjected, in- 
deed, to much suffering. But not content with allowing 
her body only this insipid food^ which could scarcely sus- 
tain it, she subjected it also to austerities and excessive 
penances, without taking counsel of any one^ persuading 
herself that^ while the object was self-mortification, she 
was right in giving herself up to every thing which could 
increase her fervor. She was incited to these holy exer- 
cises by the noble examples of self-mortification which she 
always had before her eyes. The spirit of penance reigned 
among the Christians at the Sault. Fastings, disciphne 
carried even unto blood, belts lined with points of iron, — 
these were their most common austerities ; and some of 
them, by these voluntary macerations, prepared themselves, 
when the time came^ to suffer the most fearful torments. 

The war vras once more rekmdled between the French 
and the Iroquois ; and the latter invited their countrymen 
who were at the Mission du Sault to return to their own 
country, where they promised them entire liberty in the 
exercise of their religion. The refusal with which these 
offers were met transported them with fury, and the Chris* 
tian Indians who rem^ained at the Sault vrere immediately 
declared enemies of their nation. A party of Iroquois 
surprised some of them while hunting, and carried them 
away to their country, where they were burned by a slow 
fire. But these noble and faithful men, even in the midst 
of the most excruciating torments, preached Jesus Christ 
to those who were torturing them so cruelly, and conjured 
them, as soon as possible, to embrace Christianity, to de- 
liver themselves from eternal fires. One in particular 
among them, named Etienne, signalized his constancy and 



APPENDIX. 



229 



faith. When environed by the burning fiames. he did not 
cease to encourage his wife, who was suffering the same 
torture, to invoke with him the holy name of Jesus. Be- 
ing on the point of expiring, he rallied all his strength^ 
andj in imitation of his Master, prayed the Lord with a 
loud voice for the conversion of those who had treated him 
with such inhumanity. Many of the savages, touched by 
a spectacle so new to them, abandoned their country and 
came to the Mission du Sault, to ask for baptism, and live 
there in accordance with the laws of the gospel. 

The women were not behind their husbands in the ardor 
they showed for a life of penance* They even went to 
such extremes, that^ when it came to our knowledge, we 
were obliged to moderate their zeal. Besides the ordinary 
instruments of mortification which they employed, they 
had a thousand new inventions to inflict suffering upon 
themselves. Some placed themselves in the snow when 
the cold was most severe ; others stripped themselves to 
the waist in retired places, and remained a long time ex- 
posed to the rigor of the season, on the banks of a frozen 
river, and where the wind was blowing with violence. 
There were even those whoj after having broken the ice 
in the pondsj plunged themselves in up to the neck, and 
remained there as long as it was necessary for them to re* 
cite many times the ten beads of their rosary. One of 
them did this three nights in succession ; and it was the 
cause of so violent a fever that it was thought she would 
have died of it. Another one surprised me extremely by 
her simplicity. I learned that, not content with having 
herself used this mortification^ she had also phmged her 
daughter, but three years old, into the frozen river, from 
which she drew her out half dead. When I sharply re- 
20 



230 



CATHOLIC HISTORT OF AMERICA. 



proaclied her indiscretion, slie answered me with a surpris- 
ing naivete^ that she did not think she was doing anything 
wrong, but that, knowing her daughter would one day cer- 
tainly offend the Lord, she had wished to impose on her 
in advance the pain which her sin merited. 

Although those who inflicted these mortifications on 
•themselYes were particular to conceal them from the 
knowledge of the public, yet Catharine, who had a mind 
quick and penetrating, did not fail from various appear- 
ances to conjecture that which they held so secret ; and as 
she studied every means to testify more and more her love 
to Jesus Christ, she applied herself to examme every thing 
that was done pleasing to the Lord, that she might herself 
immediately put it in practice. It was for this reason that 
while passing some days at Montreal, where for the first 
time she saw the nuns, she was so charmed with their mod- 
esty and devotion that she informed herself most thor- 
oughly with regard to the manner in which these holy sis- 
ters lived and the virtues which they j^ractised. Having 
learned that they were Christian virgins, who were con- 
secrated to God by a vow of perpetual continence, she 
gave me no peace until I had granted her permission to 
make the same sacrifice of herself, not by a simple resolu- 
tion to guard her virginity, such as she had already made, 
but by an irrevocable engagement which obliged her to 
belong to God w^ithout any recall. I would not, however, 
give my consent to this step until I had well proved her, 
and been anew convinced that it was the Spirit of God, 
acting in this excellent girl, which had thus inspired her 
with a design of which there had never been an example 
among the Indians. 

For this great event she chose the day on which we eel- 



APPENDIX. 



231 



ebrate the festival of the annunciation of the most Holy 
Virgin. The moment after she had received our Lord in 
the holy communion, she pronounced with admirable fer- 
vor the vow she had made of perpetual virginity. She 
then addressed the Holy Virgin, for whom she had a most 
tender devotion, praying her to present to her son the ob- 
lation of herself which she had just made ; after which 
she passed some hours at the foot of the altar in holy med- 
itation and in perfect union with God. 

From that time Catharine seemed to be entirely divorced 
from this world ; and she aspired continually to heaven, 
where she had fixed all her desires. She seemed even to 
taste in anticipation the sweetness of that heavenly state ; 
but her body w^as not sufficiently strong to sustain the 
weight of her austerities, and the constant effort of her 
spirit to maintain itself in the presence of God. She w^as 
at length seized with a violent illness, from wdiich she nev- 
er entirely recovered. There always remained an affec- 
tion of the stomach, accompanied by frequent vomiting, 
and a slow fever, which undermined her constitution by 
degrees, and threw her into a w^eakness which insensibly 
wasted her away. It was, however, evident that her soul 
acquired new strength in proportion as her body decayed. 
The nearer she approached the termination of her career, 
the more clearly she shone forth in all those virtues which 
she had practised with so much edification. But I need 
not stop here to particularize them ta you, except to men- 
tion a few of those which made the most impression and 
were the source and spring of all the others. 

She had a most tender love for God. Her only pleasure 
seemed to be, to keep herself in contemplation in his pres- 
ence, to meditate on his majesty and mercy, to sing his 



232 



CATHOLIC HISTvORY OF AMERICA. 



praises, and continually to desire new ways of pleasing 
him. It was prineipally to prevent distraction from other 
thoughls thai she so often withdrew into sohtude. Anas- 
tasia and Therese were the only two Chiistians with whom 
she wished much to associate, because they talked most of 
God. and their conversations breathed nothing but divine 
love. 

From thence arose the peculiar devotion she had for 
the holy eucbarist and the passion of our Savior, 
These two mysteries of the love of the same God. con- 
cealed under the veil of the eucbarist and his dying on 
the cross, ceaselessly occupied her spirit, and kindled in 
her heart the purest flames of love. Every day she was 
seen to pass whole hours at the foot of the altar, immova- 
ble, as if trcinsported beyond herself Her eyes often ex« 
plained the sentiments of her breast by the abundance of 
tears she shed: and in these tears she found so great de- 
light that she was. as it were, insensible to the most severe 
cold of vrinter. Ofren= seeing h^r benumbed with cold, I 
have sent her to the cabin to warm herself She obeyed 
immediately, but the moment after returned to the church, 
and continued there in long communion with Jesus Christ. 

To keep alive her devotion for the mystery of our Sa- 
vior's passion, and to have it always present to her mind, 
she carried on her breast a little crucifix which I had giv- 
en her. She often kissed it with feehngs of the most ten- 
der compassion for the suffering Jesus, and with the most 
vivid remembrance of the benefits of our redemption. 
One day, wishing particularly to honor Jesus Christ in this 
double mystery of his love, after having received the 
holy communion, she made a perpetual oblation of her 
eoul to Jesus in the eucharist, and of her body to Jesus 



APPENDIX. 



233 



attached to the cross ; and thenceforth she was ingenious 
to imagine every day nev/ ways of a:SictiDg and crucifying 
her flesh. 

During the winter, while she was in the forest with her 
companions, she would follow them at a distance, taking 
off her shoes and walking with her naked feet over the 
ice and snow. Having heard Anastasia say that of all 
torments that of fire was the most frightful, and that the 
constancy of the martyrs who had suffered this torture 
would be a s^reat merit with the Lord, the followino^ nisrht 
she burned her feet and limbs with a hot brand, very much 
in the same way that the Indians mark their slaves, per- 
suading herself that by this action she had declared her- 
self the slave of her Savior. At another time she strewed 
the mat on which she slept with large thorns, the points 
of which were very sharp ; and, after the example of the 
holy and thrice happy St. Louis de Gonzague. she rolled 
herself for three nights in succession on these thorns, 
which caused her the most intense pain. In consequence 
of these things her countenance was entirely vv^asted and 
pale, which those around her attributed to illness. But 
Therese, the companion whom she had taken so much into 
her confidence, having discovered the reason of this ex- 
traordinary paleness, aroused her scruples by declaring that 
she might offend God if she inflicted such austerities on 
herself without the permission of her confessor. Catha- 
rine, who trembled at the very appearance of sin, came 
immediately to find me, to confess her fault and demand 
pardon of God. I blamed her indiscretion, and directed 
her to throw the thorns into the fire. She did so imme- 
diately, for she had a.n implicit submission to the judgment 
of those who directed her conscience ; and, enlightened as 



234 CATHOLIC HISTORY OP AMERICA. 



slie was bj that illumination with which God favored her, 
she never manifested the least attachment to her own will. 

Her patience was the proof of all her acquirements. In 
the midst of her continual infirmities she always preserved 
a peace and serenity of spirit which charmed us. She 
never forgot herself, either to utter a complaint or give 
the shghtest sign of impatience. During the last two 
months of her life her sufferings were extraordinary. She 
was obliged to remain night and day in the same position, 
and the least movement caused her the most intense pain. 
But when these pains were felt with the greatest severity, 
then she seemed most content, esteeming herself happy, 
as she herself said, to live and die on the cross, uniting her 
sufferings to those of her Savior. 

As she was full of faith, she ha.d a high idea of every 
thing relating to rehgion ; and this inspired her with a par- 
ticular respect for those whom God called to the holy 
ministry. Her hope was firm, her love disinterested, serv- 
ing God for the sake of God himself, and influenced only 
by the desire to please him. Her devotion was tender 
even to tears ; her communion with God intimate and un- 
interrupted, never losing sight of him in all her actions ; 
and it was this Vvdiich raised her in so short a time to so 
sublime a state of piety. 

In short, there was nothing more remarkable in Catha- 
rine than this angelical purity, of which she was so jealous, 
and which she preserved even to her latest breath. It 
was, indeed, a miracle of grace that a young Iroquois 
should have had so strong an attachment to a virtue so 
little known in her own country, and that she should have 
lived in such innocence of life during twenty years that 
she remained in the very midst of licentiousness and dis- 



fiolateness. It was this love or Trbicli prodiicel in 

her heart so tender an affection i: r ilie Qneen of Yirgins. 
Catharine could never speak of Onr Ladj hut with trans- 
port. She had learned by heart her litanies, and recited 
them all, partienlarly in the ereningy after the common 
prayers of the cabin. She always carried with her a 
rosarr, which she recited many rimes in the conrse of the 
day. The Saturdays and other days which are particn- 
larly consecrated to her honor she devoted to extraordi- 
nary aosterities. and devoted herself to the practical imita- 
tion of some of her virtues. She redoubled her fervor 
when they celebrated one of these festivals ; and she se- 
lected such holy days to offer to God some new sacrifice, or 
to renew those which she had already made. 

It was to be expected that so holy a life would be fol- 
lowed by a most happy death ; and so it was in the last 
moments of her life that she edified us most by the prac- 
tise of her virtues, and above ail by her patience and union 
with God. She found herself very ill towards the time that 
the men are accustomed to go out to the himting grounds 
in the forest, and when the females are occupied Lrom 
morning even till evening in the fields- Those who are ill 
are therefore obhged to remain alone through the whole 
day in their cabins, a plate of Indian com and a little 
water having in the morning been placed near their mat. 
It was in this abandonment tl a: Catharine passed all the 
time of her last illness. But wliat would have overwhelmed 
another person with sadness, contributed rather to in- 
crease her jovy by furnishing her with something to increase 
her merit. Accustomed to commune alone with God. she 
turned this solitude to her profit, and made it serve to 
attach her more to her Creator by her prayers and fervent 
meditations. 



236 



CATHOLIC HISTORY OP AMERICA. 



Nevertheless, the time of her last struggle approached, 
aiid her strength each day dmiinished. She failed con- 
siderably during the Tuesday of Holy week ; and I there- 
fore thought it well to administer to her the holy com- 
munion, which she received with her usual feelings of 
devotion. I wished also at the same time to give her 
extreme unction ; but she told me there was as yet no 
pressing necessity ; and from what she said, I thought I 
would defer it till the next morning. The rest of that day 
and the following night she passed in fervent communion 
with our Lord and the Holy Virgin. On Wednesday 
morning she received extreme unction with the same 
feelings of devotion ; and at three hours after midday, 
after having pronounced the holy names of Jesus and 
Mary, a slight spasm came on, when she entirely lost the 
power of speech. As she preserved a perfect conscious- 
ness even to her last breath, I perceived that she was^ 
striving to perform inwardly all the acts which I suggested 
to her. After a short half hour of agony she peaceably 
expired, as if she was only falling into a sweet sleep. 

Thus died Catharine Tegahkouita in the twenty-fourth 
year of her age, having filled the mission with the odor of 
her sanctity and the character of holiness which she left 
behind her. Her countenance, which had been extremely 
attenuated by the maladies and constant austerities, ap- 
peared so changed and pleasant some moments after her 
death that the Indians who vrere present were not able to 
restrain the expression of their astonishment, and declared 
that a beam of that glory she had gone to possess was 
even reflected back on her body. Two Frenchmen, who 
had come from the prairie of the Madeleine to assist in 
the services of Thursday morning, seeing her extended oa 



APPEXDIX. 



237 



her mat. vrith her countenance so fresh and sweet, said one 
to the other, See how peaceably that joung female 
sleeps I " But they were very much surprised when they 
learned a moment after that it was the body of Catha- 
rine, who had just expked. They immediately retraced 
their steps, and, casting themselves on their knees at her 
feet, recommended themselves to her prayers. They even 
wished to give a public evidence of the veneration they 
had for the deceased by immediately assisting to make the 
coffin which was to enclose those holy relics. 

I make use of this expression, my reverend father, 
with the greater confidence, because God did not delay to 
honor the memory of this vhluous girl by an infinite num- 
ber of miraculous cures, which took place after her death, 
and which continue to take place daily through her inter- 
cession. This is a fact well known, not only to the Indians, 
but also to the French at Quebec and Montreal, who 
often make pilgrimages to her tomb to fulfil their vows, or 
to return thanks for favors which she has obtained for 
them in heaven. I could here relate to you a great num- 
ber of these miraculous cures, which have been attested 
by individuals the most enlightened, and whose probity is 
above suspicion; but I will content myself vdth making 
you acquainted with the testimony of two persons remark- 
able for virtue and merit, who, having themselves proved 
the power of this sainted female with God, felt they were 
bound to leave a public monument for posterity, to satisfy 
at the same time their piety and their gratitude. 

The first testimonial is that of 31. de la Colombiere, 
canon of the Cathedral of Quebec, grand vicar of the 
diocese. He expresses himself in these terms : — 



238 



CATHOLIC HISTOEY OF AMEEIGA. 



Having been ill at Quebec during tlie past jear^ from 
tlie month of January even to tlie month of June, of a slow 
fever, against which all remedies had been tried in vain, 
and of a diarrhoea. v\-hicli even ipecacuana could not cure, 
it v>'as thouglit vrell to record a vovv'. in case it should 
please God to relieve me of these two maladies^ to make a 
pilgrimage to the mission of St. Francis Xavier. to pray 
at the tomb of Catharine Tegahkouita, On the very same 
day the fever ceased ; and the diarrhoea having become 
better, I embarked sonne days afterwards to fulfil my vow. 
Scarcely had I accomplished one tliird of my journey 
when I found myself perfectly cured. As my health is 
something so very useless that I should not have dared 
to ask for it, if I had not felt myself obhged to do so by the 
deference which I ought to have for the servants of the 
Lord, it is impossible reasonably to withhold the belief 
that God, in according to me this grace, had no other view 
than to make known the credit which this excellent maiden 
had with him. For myself, I should fear that I was un- 
justly withholding the truth, and refusing to the missions of 
Canada the glory which is due to them, if I did not testify, 
as I have now done, that I am a debtor for my cure to 
this Iroquois virgin. It is for this reason that I have given 
the present attestation, with every sentiment of gratitude 
of which I am capable, to increase, as far as is in my 
power, the confidence vrhich is felt in my benefactress, but 
still more to excite the desire to imitate her virtues. 

Given at Yillemarie, the 14th of September, 1696. 

J. DE LA COLOMBIERE, P. J., 

Canon of the Cathedral of Quebec. 
The second testimonial is from ZsL du Luth, captain in 



APPENDIX. 



230 



the marine corps, and commander of Fort Frontinac. It 
is thus that he speaks : — 

I, the subscriber, certify to all whom it may concern, 
that, having been tormented by the gout for the space of 
twenty-three years, and with such severe pains that it 
gave me no rest for the space of three months at a time, I 
addressed myself to Catharine Tegahkouita, an Iroquois 
virgin, deceased at the Sault St. Louis in the reputation 
of sanctity ; and I promised her to visit her tomb, if God 
should give me health through her intercession. I have 
been so perfectly cured, at the end of one novena * which 
I made in her honor, that after five months I have not 
perceived the slightest touch of my gout. 

Given at Fort Frontinac, this loth of August, 1696. 

J. DU LUTH, 

Captain of the marine corps, 
Commander of Fort Frontinac. 

I have thought that a narrative of the virtues of this 
holy female, born thus in the midst of heathenism and 
among savages, would serve to edify those who, having 
been born in the bosom of Christianity, have also every 
possible aid in raising themselves to the height of holiness. 

I have the honor to be, &c. 

* A noyena is a course of deyotional services extending through 
nine days. 



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